Quote:
|
Originally Posted by johnny pinwheel
good question........a 40 optional claimer won at 29-1.....now i know why i avoid the poly. "dixie" hated it and the 5 time grade 1 winner ran late. the horse that won looked like garbage. its possible that there are about 3 good horses on the entire circuit and thats because one of them came out of retirement......  |
That "40 optional claimer" was an An1x for Pretty Unusual and was her first off of a long layoff. Do you only read the last line of PPs? She was already a SW against Cal-bred company, but that doesn't count against open n1x conditions. And this race was the first time since that stakes win that she was ridden from far off the pace. Maybe with the big field, they figured they would get the fast pace that would make a move from far back the best bet.
Repeat after me - OC40/n1x-N means the horse is running in an open An1x, not for the claiming tag.
Stardom Bound went 6-wide while Pretty Unusual went inside between horses, so it was a good first off the layoff race for the grey, or second if you count the debacle behind a loose-on-an-easy-lead horse at Aqueduct. They don't come back fully fit, you know, and this was a prep race for the La Canada (tilde over the n). Dixie also had a (one-turn, less useful) race in Nov after many months off and had plenty of company up in the first flight.