From the World of Visually Impressive

[NoLuvForPletch]

Anybody like what they saw in the 9th at Gulfstream yesterday? Hey Byrn's trouncing of what was perceived to be 2 really nice one's in Jockey Ridge and Bordeaux Bandit means what? He only ran a tick faster than a salty old 25k claimer, but that was some show. Anyone get a Speed Fig yet? I'll temper my excitement because I can't imagine a world where a Put It Back can go a Mile and a Quarter, and he came home pretty slow (25 and whole lot of change), but 4 wide all the way around and drawing off that way was a pretty sight.

[SniperSB23]

I'm curious what they will do with the figure for this one. The time was slow but so were most of the other races on the card.

Not sure what to make of the performance either. The horse hadn't shown anything to expect that sort of dominant performance. The only reasons he might be interesting is that he did have a long layoff so could have matured and had only run at Calder which is a quirky surface he might not have liked. Definitely a weird result.

[SentToStud]

It was an odd racce. A lot of horses yesterday with inside posts ran poorly at short odds from close up. My first impression is I don't think the inside was very good yesterday. Watching the race, I never had the feeling either of the two favorites was going to win.

I couldn't have bet the winner. But it was interesting that up until the last minute or so before the race, he was sitting at 6-1, which made no sense to me.

[NoLuvForPletch]

Hey Byrn exceeds expectations
By MIKE WELSCH
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Sunday's featured ninth race was supposed to be a step along the Kentucky Derby trail for a pair of promising 3-year-olds, recent maiden winners Bordeaux Bandit and Jockey Ridge. Instead, the first-level allowance race turned out to be a showcase for the Calder-based Hey Byrn, who overwhelmed the favorites en route to an eye-catching 14 1/2-length victory.

The fact that Hey Byrn won the race did not surprise his trainer, Eddie Plesa Jr., in the least, though he admitted that he did not expect that type of performance.

"I've always loved this horse, but I had to stop on him in September after he would end up getting an infected tooth, of all things," Plesa said.

Hey Byrn started four times at 2, all at his home base at Calder, winning his maiden at second asking and finishing second behind Calder division leader Wise Answer in his stakes debut in the Affirmed Division of the Florida Stallion series. Hey Byrn concluded his juvenile campaign finishing fourth, again behind Wise Answer, in the mile-and-70-yard Foolish Pleasure Stakes, a race that yielded three next-out stakes winners.

"He was training very well for this race but was still about a half a work away from where I really wanted him," Plesa said. "Then we catch two horses who were running fives on the Ragozin Sheets, and looked like they could be anything. My horse went in off a 12."

But Hey Byrn proved that the figs don't always matter. With jockey Edgar Prado, coming off career win No. 6,000 an hour earlier, sitting patiently, Hey Byrn tracked the early leaders early. He moved readily to command three wide approaching the stretch and readily increased his advantage over Bordeaux Bandit, who gave chase through the final quarter-mile. Hey Byrn earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 97 for the race.

Plesa, who trains the son of Put It Back for longtime owner Bea Oxenberg, said he is uncertain of what will be next for Hey Byrn.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook since he won, and we've already received a couple of substantial offers," Plesa said Monday. "Bea's not really motivated to sell her horses, but we'll listen. She's also not much on traveling, so we'll probably run him back at Gulfstream. The Fountain of Youth comes up too quick, so we might just wait for the Florida Derby."

The Fountain of Youth is on Feb. 24, and the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.

[the_fat_man]

Typically, off tracks, cheap tracks, and tracks with pronounced biases (AQU inner, for example) produce what I call WIPEOUT races. These are races where all but a single horse (the winner) is REGRESSING the last call (in the more pronounced WIPEOUTS, they're regressing progressively). 5 of the 9 races run that day were 'true' WIPEOUTS, and a couple others almost made it as well.

Instead of focusing on what the winner did, maybe a better way to approach this is to consider that everything else in the race would've been BURIED by CLERPACK, the winner of the $25k claiming 7th race, which was run in nominally slower fractions that the 9th. In fact, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers in the 7th would've beaten the (rest of the) field as well. Something is definitely wrong here. I'd SELL QUICK, if I were the owner.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Typically, off tracks, cheap tracks, and tracks with pronounced biases (AQU inner, for example) produce what I call WIPEOUT races. These are races where all but a single horse (the winner) is REGRESSING the last call (in the more pronounced WIPEOUTS, they're regressing progressively). 5 of the 9 races run that day were 'true' WIPEOUTS, and a couple others almost made it as well.

Instead of focusing on what the winner did, maybe a better way to approach this is to consider that everything else in the race would've been BURIED by CLERPACK, the winner of the $25k claiming 7th race, which was run in nominally slower fractions that the 9th. In fact, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers in the 7th would've beaten the (rest of the) field as well. Something is definitely wrong here. I'd SELL QUICK, if I were the owner.

Great post.

[justindew]

I don't think Hey Byrn is nominated to the Triple Crown. Admittedly, I am not up on the rules for Derby entry, but can this horse get in the Derby field if 20 NOMINATED horses are entered?

I think the answer might be no.

[Danzig]

they have late nominations, which cost 6k, rather than 600. if you miss that boat, you can supplement, but it'll cost you megabucks.