[quote=SCUDSBROTHER]
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Originally Posted by eajinabi
Yea, he kind of specializes in getting claimers to run pretty good in stakes. Notice that? Look at him get that Optional Claimer Modification to come within what? A length of Grade 2 winner Life is Sweet last Sunday? There's a lot of them. What about the horse who had it's nose in front of Cowboy Cal in early January? Almost won that huh? That's after Baffert gave up. Mandella thought Peace Chant was worth just $62,500, but O'neil showed him the horse can win that much in one damn race with him..(miracle.!!)
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Optional claiming races are allowance races with one extra condition, allowing horses who have already cleared the condition to run, if they will go in for a tag. Allowance races are used by trainers to test their horses, to see if they are good enough to take the next step up, to stakes races. So for a horse to go from an allowance race (especially off a win) to run decently in a stakes race is not unprecedented. What had Life is Sweet won before the El Encino last out? A maiden and a n1x allowance.
As to Peace Chant, his stakes record reads - At 3 2nd San Vicente H (G2); At 4 2nd Los Angeles H (G3); At 6 won Phoenix Gold Cup. He looks like another Arson Squad, a horse whose form slipped when synthetics were installed and who woke up again when on real dirt. He's only managed a few starts a year so is obviously fragile, but he has shown flashes of brilliance in the past. Not surprising when you realize that Safely Kept is his mum.