The 3yo's are finally starting to look less horrible
 

Sidney's Candy is the fastest 2-year-old in the history of Del Mar Synthetics by an incredibly wide margin.

The 99 Beyer he earned in his maiden win is 8 full points higher than any other 2yo race ever run at Del Mar since the switch to synthetics.

Only two 2yo's had run 91's at Del Mar before .. they are eventual 2yo champion Midshipman and Details R Sketchy - both ran 91's in their debut win. Details R Sketchy only had a 4 race career .. he won his first two starts - and was beaten a neck by Dancing In Silks in his 4th and final start. Dancing In Silks followed that narrow win up with 3 straight stakes wins including a Breeders Cup Sprint upset.

I thought Sidney's Candy looked great today crushing a moderate field in the San Vincente. A 4+ length margin of victory - and gaps of more than a length between each horse in the field from first to last place are things very rarely seen in synthetic races - so that's a great sign as well.

The obvious question now is how far will he go and how well will he run on dirt?

I think he projects pretty well for both. His sire Candy Ride put on a spectacular display when mopping the floor with a razor sharp Medaglia D' Oro at 10fs in the Pacific Classic. His 2nd dam Exchange won a Grade 1 at 10fs and a Grade 2 at 12fs - and ran very good 2nd's to top mares like Paseanna and Hollywood Wildcat on dirt.

At Tampa, Rule made the best of a soft trip and finished strongly to win the Sam Davis with a 98 Beyer. He's the 3rd Pletcher trained winner of the race in the last five years. Any Given Dog Biscuit won the '07 running with a 95 Beyer. Bluegrass Dog won the '06 running with a 96 Beyer. Both of them would eventually win the Haskell later on.

Finally - Caracortado is now a perfect 5-for-5 after another clear cut win in the Bob Lewis. The 97 Beyer is exactly one point less than the 98 earned by Pioneer of the Nile in last year's Bob Lewis... and that was the race where Papa Clem ran 2nd and I Want Revenge ran 3rd and some tried to make it out to be the key race of the century.

Bred for durability and soundness .. Caracortado's sire ran exactly once and his dam was unraced - he has already answered the dirt and distance question with a compelling win in a 4f maiden claiming race on real dirt at Fairplex.

Dave In Dixie was a nice - but non-threatening 2nd in his first try since the Norfolk.

Oh yeah - and Conveyance did nothing wrong either.

Scavs has already pre booked 8 Bob Gary mares to Cat Dreams Indiana watch OUT

Cat Dreams had the makings of a pretty nice horse.

As for Conveyance, how much did you wager on him in the futures pool?

Stop it

To tell you the truth at 1500 a shot and with the Indy money as strong as it is... you get 5 decent mares that can produce and you will have 3 or 4 solid earners

$0.00

$10 at 75/1 right before his race last month.

They do show betting on Derby futures now?

lack of sleep, sorry!

The Indy program is exactly like the Penn program. It is going to rapidly get better because people are dropping foals there because dropping in KY makes zero sense.

The major problem with the Indy program is their lack of stakes races for IN bred horses. IL has four days specific to IL breds, 75-100k races, IN has two and only one or two route races.

They do write Allowance races up to nw4, and have an open allowance condition for IN breds, so that is a positive

gl getting a stud fee on an indy bred after they 'have done enough' thats why people drop in kentucky



The Indy program is exactly like the Penn program. It is going to rapidly get better because people are dropping foals there because dropping in KY makes zero sense.

I get it now...There are plenty of non-KY stallions.

Wasn't Smart Strike an Ontario bred?

Yes.

He's an Ontario bred that is bred better than 99.99% of Kentucky breds.

Have to see how he comes out of it. Last Summer, I thought he was more talented than L.A.L. This horse comes from a highly enhancing barn. As you might have noticed, he doesn't have a Breeders Cup Win. So, they don't do quite as well when they come under more thorough testing. So, there are actually 4 issues:

1) Durability ..hello

2) Distance

3) Synth. to Dirt

4) Trainer's ability to get horses to perform while under more extensive blood testing than routinely encountered.

The word talented shouldn't be associated with Lookin At Lucky until he proves otherwise.

I like how TVG's worst analysts are so fond of picking out a random horse that ran against two seperate horses in totally differnt types of races and comparing them as though it's some sort of conclusive measuring stick and such pesky things as race-to-race circumstances are unimportant.

For instance ... The Program was beaten 14 lengths by Sidney's Candy at Del Mar. But ... The Program was only beaten 1.5 lengths by Looking At Lucky in the Hollywood Futurity.

It will be interesting to see what shakes out of the three races going this Saturday on dirt.

But I am really looking forward to the filly race at GP the following Saturday. Mr. Cobra Venom's filly could be any kind.

Same here.

I don't know what to make of horses like Buddy's Saint and Jackson Bend just yet.

Obviously Buddy's Saint's 2nd race was huge - but it was a performance that came while racing on a very gold rail.

Well, I only put his initials, because I know how Eastern folks reflexively respond to that individual.

He's a full blown talent of Spectacular Bid and Seattle Slew like cloth compared to Yankee Bravo. :)

I looked up a few old races of Sidney's Candy's 2nd dam (Exchange) ... who can forget the most dreadful creation of all ... the jockey cam! As seen at 1:23 into the following clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnwiy...er_profilepage

Exactly. Not like these types of analyses come even remotely close to approximately TRUE ability measuring tools; like BEYERS, for example. :rolleyes: