Favorite win of the weekend?
 

Not the best but your favorite.....

Mine was Jonesboro.

Had to dig this up but here's why. A real comeback kid. :)

On Jonesboro, from June of last year.....

Jonesboro trainer optimistic for Foster
Morse hoping for 'shocker'

By Jennie Rees
jrees@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

In deciding whether to run Jonesboro in Saturday's $750,000-added Stephen Foster Handicap, trainer Randy Morse could have gotten some encouragement from a couple of his fellow Churchill Downs horsemen.

Last year Ron Moquett won his first Grade I race when Seek Gold took the Stephen Foster at 91-1 odds. Three years ago Walter Bindner did the same when Colonial Colony, a last-minute entrant, won in the slop at 62-1.

"There have been some shockers the last few years," said Morse, who likewise would earn his first Grade I victory with a win in the Stephen Foster. "You never know, maybe it will happen again. Being realistic, he'll be a fairly long shot. There are some pretty nice horses in there. But it's horse racing. You never know what will happen."

Jonesboro, 15-1 in the field of eight older horses, has better credentials going in than either Seek Gold or Colonial Colony, neither of whom had won a stakes. The 5-year-old Jonesboro has won six races, including Oaklawn's Grade III Essex.

Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel, who won last year on Seek Gold, will ride Jonesboro.

The 1 1/8-mile Foster is the signature event of Churchill's Stephen Foster Super Saturday program, which features six graded stakes. Master Command is the 2-1 favorite; the Todd Pletcher trainee won Hawthorne's Grade III National Jockey Club and the Fair Grounds' Grade II New Orleans Handicap in his last two starts.

There is a lot of speed in the Foster, but Morse believes that will help Jonesboro, who has been in front for at least a half-mile in his past six races.

"He's been on the lead when they went soft fractions, and he really hasn't finished like I think he's capable," he said. "He won a stakes as a 3-year-old when they took him off the pace. We're going to definitely take him back."

Jonesboro is a son of champion Mom's Command, who in 1985 swept New York's filly triple crown and the Alabama while ridden by owner Peter Fuller's daughter Abby. The 25-year-old mare was euthanized a week before Jonesboro became her first graded-stakes winner in the Essex. Two weeks ago Mom's Command was announced as being a 2007 inductee to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame after being on the ballot eight times without selection.

Morse bought Jonesboro as a yearling for $27,000 for owner Michael Langford, who is from Jonesboro, Ark. He also purchased Mom's Command's last foal for $30,000, the 3-year-old Tri Delt Girl, who will run in an allowance race Saturday.

In her early years Mom's Command was bred to blue-blood stallions (Danzig, Mr. Prospector, Alydar, Easy Goer) with limited success. Jonesboro is by Sefapiano, a son of the deceased Fappiano who stands for $2,500. But Sefapiano is out of Sefa's Beauty, who was a top mare around the Midwest around the time Mom's Command dominated the New York 3-year-old fillies.

"I was just looking at the (physical) individual," Morse said of buying Jonesboro. "But I've seen that happen in the past. They'll breed those mares to top studs and come up with nothing. Then they breed them to some kind of off-the-wall horse and -- boom -- they get a runner. It's all a crapshoot anyway. But you have Sefa's Beauty on one side, Mom's Command on the other."

The 5-year-old Jonesboro is lucky to even be alive. He won Oaklawn's Northern Spur two years ago to become Mom's Command's first stakes-winner of any fashion. Jonesboro came out of the race with a fractured cannon bone. He was off a year, came back briefly and was off for five months.

"With the injury he had as a 3-year-old, it's pretty amazing he's even running, especially at this level," Morse said.

Edit...

Its a toss up for me between Formal Rush and Family Lawyer.

Autism Awareness
 

By far.....it is the feel good story of the year. Hope this guy goes to the Derby as it can only help raise both awareness to this awful affliction and to our lowly beloved game.

asudevil hit the nail on the head. Great cause, and for selfish purposes, definitely going to be THE story heading into the Derby should Autism Awareness make the starting gate. Good Morning America, the Today Show, everybody's going to be talking about the horse if he's a Derby entrant.

No offense to the autismatics but we'd all probably be better off to send an Autism charity $1 and hope MC Hammer get another runner in the race.

Well there is a possibility that Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise could attend the derby if AA makes it. That would be fantastic.

So what should we focus on
 

12 out of 15 mediocre contenders who are slower than the fillies and mares?...all with sub standard Beyer figures up to this point. You ever think a story like this might arouse some curiosity toward the game? Could people across the entire country who would never consider visiting a race track do so and become intoxicated with the atmosphere? Could it possibly expand the fan base? Might it intrigue folks to buy horses, whom never would have considered it? Could it possibly do enough good to wake up a dying industry and make it realize that preserving tradition without adaptation means nothing?

We should focus on Alaazo

Autism Awareness humbled the big shots.

1. No. Unless this is some literal translation of Portuguese. Then still, probably not.
2. No.
3. No. And no offense, but if we let the autismatics in, how do we keep out the asthmatics?
4. Yes, maybe. There are probably a couple people out there looking for a new reason to get intoxicated at the Derby. Good one.
5. No. For every new fan of racing via autism over the next 8 weeks, 10,000 will die. Of old age.
6. No. I might have said maybe had Merv Griffin not passed.
7. Yes, maybe. Then again, I think replacing shuffleboard with Whack-A-Mole is the answer to reversing the economic downturn.

Aside from Barbaro, what was the biggest national horse racing story over, say, the last five years? St. Liam winning the 2005 Classic? Curlin, Street Sense, Hard Spun, and the other 2007 3YO's? Anything else racing-related? It's either Afleet Alex's connection with childhood cancer, Funny Cide's wacky owners and their story, or Smarty Jones. The only actual on-track story that even comes close is probably Ghostzapper.

I think it's foolish to suggest this kind of attention isn't a positive for horse racing. I'm definitely rooting for the long shot Autism Awareness to make the Derby and for the media scrutiny he'll receive because of it, even if the horse finishes 19th.

Euroears!

:)

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Won't Autism Awareness almost certainly need to cash another graded check before the Derby just to get in the gate? Isn't the benchmark usually higher than the $90K he earned this weekend?

So, he'll have to do it again. And if he does -- then he deserves to go anyway.

The alleged buzzer/object in Santos hand.

It is usually right in that area I think, maybe a defection or two will be needed day of. But he can probably get extra winnings with the 4 horse stakes races they have in So. Cal

He's 25th now, from the chart I just looked at. If that's correct, he'd still need to run pretty big in one of the short field Cali races, cuz he's gonna need to pick up at least 30K or so, and sucking up for 3rd in a 200K race isn't going to get it done.