Better six race run from a 3yo filly?
 

I mentioned in the Crist thread about how females sprinters and turf horses don't get their just due because few people care about those divisions and because there are few Gr 1's for a top horse to pile up.

I think for six straight races during her 3yo filly Xtra Heat ran better performances than any 3yo filly I've ever seen. If you look at RA's three different wins in important races against males - and her staggering margins of victory in the Oaks and Mother Goose .. you'd think the quality of her performances were way better. For a season she was obviously better.






The two defeats by Xtra Heat were both remarkable performances. The 2nd place finish in the Test was a mind-boggling performance and she was easily much the best. The 2nd place finish in the BC Sprint came against the deepest field of sprinters you'll ever see. The field included favorite Kona Gold, Caller One, Squirtle Squirt, Left Bank, Swept Overboard, Delaware Township, El Corredor etc. Five Star Day won the Vanderbilt last out and was just 2/5ths off of Saratoga's track record - and he was 50/1 in the race.

The crazy thing about Xtra Heat was how slow her numbers were for the first 15 starts of her career ... she was 13-for-14 with 12 stakes wins in sprints .. with a nose defeat to Cat Chat in a race where many argued that she ran on a dead rail. Never once running very fast.

Wasn't Cat Chat Alan Goldberg's last graded stakes win prior to Strike A Deal?

Also, I think you need to put up Lakeway's 6 race streak culminating in that devastating Mother Goose.

Also:

Lite Light leading up to CCA Oaks
Excellent Meeting up to the Princess
Silverbulletday up the Gazelle

No luck with Lite Light and EM .. but here are SBD and Lakeway...




Lakeway:

Gonna need:

Flawlessly (I think it's only 5 starts)
Hollywood Wildcat (maybe start with the Azalea)

9 starts before the BC....racing is comical now

I forgot the Mother Goose used to be run earlier than the Hollywood Oaks. Thanks for not leaving that race off.

Look at Xtra Heat ... they ran her ass like crazy. Her BC Sprint try was her 12th start of the year .. and she ran twice in December before the year started.

I could scan in Flawlessly if I had a scanner working now - but no luck.

HW's Azalea wasn't much but she had 5 nice ones after that....

Thanks.

No pressure, but:

Yanks Music (I think you posted it elsewhere)
Go For Wand
Jostle

I'm pretty sure I have them - will add tonight. GFW was a little before me - but she obviously ran 5 huge ones in a row in between the Oaks loss and BC breakdown.

Getting back to Xtra Heat ... without a doubt the one race she ran that impressed me the most was not any of her 25 stakes wins .. nor was it the 2nd place finish against a brutally tough group of males in the BC Sprint.

For me - It was her defeat in the Test.

She hooked a super expensive 2yo sales horse in Harmony Lodge - a horse who just missed a track record going 5.5f at Saratoga in her career debut.

The two of them battled through a 44 flat over a racetrack that - on that day - such a fraction was impossible to believe going 7fs.

Harmony Lodge ran five times at Saratoga in her career - and her best performance might not be the day she won her Grade 1 - it might not be the day she just missed a really old track record in her debut - it was probably the day she got beat 39 lengths and ran a 21 Beyer figure .. after running a pace figure that was about a 150. She showed her true raw speed that day.



To give you an even better idea about how killer that pace was in the Test .. Secret Liason was one of the fastest 3yo filly sprinters in speed crazy So. Cal - and she couldn't even sniff that pace from 3rd. The pace causing her to get beat 50+ lengths and run a -0 Beyer.



For an even better idea of how fast the pace was in the Test .. future champion sprinter speedball Orientate broke his maiden going 6f that day. He was loose on the lead going 6f through a 45 2/5th half .. on my pace numbers for Saratoga .. he went 50 points slower to the half than the Test pacesetter!



I think for a 3yo filly to survive the pace and quality pressure that Xtra Heat did that day - fight Victory Ride as hard as she did when she came to her - and still run a triple digit final time figure at 7fs .. it was a remarkable effort. Probably more remarkable than stringing together 3 straight Beyers in the 117-to-120 range like she did right after that.

yes, it is.

Lakeways 2nd lifetime start, which is the first race you listed of hers, was freakin awesome. Truly one of the most unbelievable performances I've witnessed, when you consider all the circumstances.

I've posted her before, but one must mention again the super filly Akinemod.

In her sixth start of this run she had, she ran something like a 119 going long for the first time.



And yeah, I know, those last 2 were technically as a 4yo, but barely, and not really.

I seem to recall discussion that the rail on BC Day 2001 was not the place to be either, and that's where was the entire way.

Jostle 5 race run:



Yanks Music's entire career:

If not for a bad trip in the Acorn she'd only have one blemish on her record.. it's a shame her career was cut short..

I like it. Only loses when she's odds-on. What did the exacta pay in those races?

Acorn: $40

Monmouth Oaks: $17


I think Obrien ran her back way too quick in the Monmouth race, she was coming in on short rest after a long battle with Escena.. it's the only race where she really didn't show a whole lot of fight.

do you remember why they didnt just stay home and run in the cca oaks?

Not sure.. it's possible they weren't thrilled with the idea of taking on My Flag at 10F.... At the time, My Flag was the leader of the division..

that was what i was thinking. odd decision though.

Believe it or not, I think Leo O'Brien was planning on running in both the Monmouth Oaks and the CCA Oaks. The reason he went to Monmouth was to get a race around two-turns into her. This was his comment following the Mother Goose win:

"The longer she goes, the better she gets," said her trainer, Leo O'Brien. "She has a problem with drifting out. I want to give her some racing education and run her around two turns. But, with a race in between, she should run in the Coaching Club American Oaks."

I suppose the loss derailed the return trip to Belmont.

The Monmouth race I think showed she was a little knocked out from the Mother Goose.. Top Secret shouldn't have been able to beat her..

Id still say My Flag's presence had a little something to do with passing on it too..

''I thought My Flag could beat us,'' O'Brien said, ''because I thought My Flag could beat us at a mile and a quarter. I wasn't really confident going into the race. "

He said that after the Alabama, I'm sure it applied to the CCA Oaks too..

Its fun looking through the old racing articles, reading the quotes.. Earlier this week I read that Craig Perret was the first choice to ride Holy Bull, Perret chose End Sweep instead.. pretty amazing..

was that before the Futurity?

Yes, it was for this race..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHtpBQYHG4

Here's the filly that Indian Charlie's old board nemisis compared to Alydar back in the day.

She was coupled with Generally Challenged as the 9/2 favorite in the Derby betting over - I believe - Stephen Got Even.

The never to be forgotten - only to pretty much be forgotten Eight Belles ...





She sucked as a 2-year-old and something turned her around at age 3 - where she was a pretty beastly 3yo filly.

Shame she wasn't around - she could have done a lot of damage against these utterly pathetic older male divisions of the last few years.

looking at those figures compared to the others it dont look like much of a run, and they were on like surfaces as well.

Rags To Riches:




An Ap Indy out of a half to Jazil going 5.5fs in June of her 2yo season!! That 62 Beyer should be enough to put her in the Hall of Fame alone considering her pedigree. I don't think i've ever seen a worse classy pedigree for that type of race.

She was about 6 wide on both turns in the Grade 1 Las Virgines - and still got up at a mile in her first route try and her first try against winners. Great performance despite the weak figure.

Blushing KD:



Last 7 races of the brilliant ones life.

Beat males by 20 lengths under a full nelson hold to start off 3yo season ... took Tomisue's Delight apart at FG a couple times ... destroyed Valid Bonnet and Ajina at OP ... easily won a deep KY Oaks that included Sharp Cat from the West and Glitter Woman from the East. Made the bridgejumpers take it up the butt in a total non-effort as the 1/9 favorite in the Black Eyed Susan .. romped at MTH to end her career.

I think her remains would have won last nights Grade 2 300K Cornhusker Handicap with total ease.

Coincidentally, Rags To Riches debut was in fact the same day Jazil won the Belmont.

Also, as you suggest, that Las Virgenes trip was one of the more infamous rides by Garrett Gomez. It was almost as if he was trying to get her beat.

And he was whining he lost the mount on her in the Belmont because he foolishly (and greedily) snatched up Hard Spun. He was lucky to have a mount at all (all the converse can't be said for Hard Spun--who could have used just about anyone else aboard and had a better go of it).

By the way, now that we have Excellent Meeting's pps up there, what kind of torrid rivalry would we have had if she and Silverbulletday locked horns at Santa Anita during the winter of '99?

Their 2 meetings as 2yos were a good indication.

Talk about forgotten horses.

Beautiful Glass

The mighty, and I do mean mighty, Ski Goggle.




Her best race was probably the Acorn, in which she beat all time great Princess Rooney by 7.5 lengths!

Dam of the immortal Ski Captain..

I don't know about immortal, but he was a pretty nice horse.

Another foal of hers, Ski Paradise, won 1.4 mil and was second in the BC mile a number of years back.

I think that was the second year Lure won it.

Damn good filly if you ask me.

I think she was ok .....

http://community.drf.com/files/melair-1.pdf