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Originally Posted by Calzone Lord
Ouch for the road to the Santa Anita Handicap.
The 3yo's in the Sham went faster than the Grade 2 Older males on the same day. Will be interesting to see how other figure makers have it... I can't imagine anything with the weather could have caused reason for a variant split.
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That edition of the San Pasqual puts it in line to be demoted to Grade 3 next year. Tres Borrachos, the "marquee" in the race, got buried by a couple of 3yos in the BC Dirt Mile, too, last November.
With the 4yo-restricted San Fernando only 7 days after the San Pasqual and the only decent, established older horse in CA awaiting the San Antonio (Game On Dude) next month, it's no surprise it came up very weak. Of course, I'm not sure adding Tapizar, Comma To The Top, and Prayer For Relief to the field would have helped very much.
Sadly, aside from Game On Dude, perhaps only turf horses Ultimate Eagle and Mr. Commons will lend any weight to the Big Cap. And those two have to get through the Strub first. Hopefully, the East Coast trainers are keeping tabs, though they're probably more worried about Dubai. Rick Dutrow and Graham Motion don't balk at coming to CA. Any of Mucho Macho Man, Trickmeister, Boys At Toscanova, Shackleford, Hymn Book or Redeemed would be a welcomed addition.