12/17-18 (HOL): CashCall Futurity (G1); On Trust
 

9th (4:37) CashCall Futurity (G1)

1 1/16 Miles (All Weather Track) | Open | 2 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $750,000

1 Handsome Mike Nakatani C S 121 L
2 Brother Francis Espinoza V 121 L
3 Groovin' Solo Quinonez A 121 L
4 Empire Way Rosario J 121 L
5 Drill Garcia M 121 L
6 Sky Kingdom Gomez G K 121 L
7 Blingo Smith M E 121 L
8 Rousing Sermon Talamo J 121 L
9 Liaison Bejarano R 121 L
10 Cozzetti Leparoux J R 121 L
11 Majestic City Dominguez R A 121 Blk-Off L
12 Basmati Berrios Hector I 121 L
13 Desormais Flores D R 121

Per Team Valor on twitter, Lucky Chappy had a fever and is not shipping.

So I can lose more money on that turtle Empire Way.

no Secret Circle which is probably a good thing in the long run, Baffert looks to be loaded for the Derby campaign he has about 20 horses in the barn talented enough.

DUNDAY 9th (4:38) On Trust H.

7 1/2 Furlongs (All Weather Track) | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $80,000

1 Spud Spivens Gomez G K 116 L
2 Red Defense Rosario J 121 L
3 Scofield Barracks Berrios Hector I 113 L
4 Mark the Bench Garcia M 112 L
5 Legal Separation Espinoza V 116 L
6 Mensa Heat Talamo J 122 L
7 Chiloquin Pedroza M A 118 L

Hey Stevie,

Does Dunday come before or after Sunday? :p

I love Sky Kingdom in here, love him. A little Blingo to backup.

Liaison will be flying late...

Liason just held.

A pretty nice Maiden finished 3rd. That maiden is now multiple Graded Stakes placed.

Nationalore part deux.

I'll take it....

Liaison faded late.

Brother Francis needed to run off the board to have any semblance of a normal career (ie another shot at maiden special weight company) for the next 6 months.

I eagerly await his return to straight maidens, say in late March or April, where I will be looking to bottom wheel or toss outright.

Good call. I like him moving forward, but just liked the other 2 a little more in this spot. I was wrong, but I have been wrong all day.

I thought he ran big. Better than his margin of victory would indicate anyways.

I've liked this horse from early on at Del Mar. I think he will get even better with more ground. Hopefully Baff puts him away for a while.

How so? No unbiased person could hold your opinion. He couldn't have had an easier trip and again almost got run down by a complete mediocrity. . . I don't get this horse at all. The Cali 2-year-olds going long are pretty horrendous at this point.

While the trip might have been free of any real trouble, I did like how he was able to sit behind a wall of horses and not 'lose it'. He ran professionally, which to me is pretty important, because he's been a noticeably green runner up till now.

Primarily, however, I don't think he's a synthetic surface runner.

Relax. He was closer to the pace then he had to be and made his move a bit early. I liked him coming in because of his running style, coming way out of it. I thought he ran fine. I think hes better then Pioneer of the Nile was at this point. I know everyone will laugh at that but Pioneer of the Nile won a major derby prep and was second in the Derby. The thing about Liason is I think he really wants to dirt. We wont get to see if thats the case for a while though. What is there not to get about him at this point? I dont get what you dont get? Who has really stood out at this point? Union Rags has issues running straight, the Juvy winner I dont believe is much horse.... Who is there?

I don't really get him either. He got a nice ride and fell into a great trip. You can't fault him for it, but it's also worth mentioning when talking about the race he ran and margin of victory.

I know much has been made about Liaison not "acting" like a typical Indian Charlie, and but when it is all said and done, this horse has never been more than 3 lengths back at the first point of call aside from his green and Polytrack-tainted debut.

He's shown some grit, but he's also shown some vulnerability inside the 1/16th pole in his last two.

Dude.

Espinoza also dropped his stick on him at the 1/16th pole. Seemed like his run kind of stopped after he quit getting hit.

Well, if you count his second start, in which he was more than three back, then he's been more than three back at the first call in half of his starts.

But yeah, I think as he gets more experience, he's just learning to run.

From what I've seen from the rest of this crop, thus far, it's pretty hard to find major fault with Liaison.

OK, you got me, he was 3.5 lengths back in that sprint. Again, he's hardly been "coming from way out of it".

I'll wait for some dirt before making any assessments.

90 Beyer (Liaison & Rousing Sermon)

I not convinced that he'll improve racing on dirt. For one thing, he's already won on it, so we know he handles it. He didn't get a big figure in his maiden win, so it's not like his performances have suffered racing at Hollywood. From a figures standpoint, I don't see him moving up a lot because of surface. That's not to say that his numbers won't improve with simple maturity from 2 to 3.

While you can't fault the colt's race record, you can be suspicious of the way he finished up in his last two starts and the fact that Cal-bred Rousing Sermon, as pointed out by hockey, has been the one giving him fits.

I meant in general, not for this race. Check out the thread after he won his last race. I bet Sky Kingdom to win, boxed him and Blingo and was live for $3 in the pick 3 to either of them. It was paying pretty decent. You can like a horse in general or moving forward but not like him in a certain spot, right? The beyer comes back a 90, really giving no one a reasson to bash the horse. The number is legit enough.

^^
:rolleyes:

Hah you tried a partial redboard last night with the Ravens. That's fu.cking hilarious, Joey. That was one of your better mushes.

If you liked Liaison in general, how could you not like him in that race at 5-1 going exactly the same trip he went last time?

In a bizarre coincidence, NATIONALORE is the Brisnet 'Horse of the Day'...

(I didn't know they had a Horse of the Day, but Nationalore happens to be it. Link takes you to his career PP's.)

Not at all. I was losing 7-0 and 5 hours earlier had already had them locked in on 2 different 50 parlays.