No big surprises in either the Fountain of Youth (Greatest Honour) or Southwest (Essential Quality) but man oh man… the Davona Dale! Wholebodemeister at 52-1. Vequist faded and ended up being eased and walked off (she did bump Curlin’s Catch at the start and never really fired). The other favorite, Millefeuille finished 7th.
The 50 points earned by Wholebodemeister could be enough to get her in the Kentucky Oaks.
Well, Essential Quality looked great in the Southwest and Greatest Honour looked great in the Fountain of Youth. My only reservation about GH is that closers don’t always do well in the Deby.
As to the Davona Dale, Wholebodemeister (what a name!) cruised, but what happened to Verquist? 
Vequist. I was concerned to read she was eased and walked off and nothing yet this morning (at least on BH or PR.).
From another board, Greatest Honour posted a 89 Beyer so not spectacular (and if you are in for an interesting read… I looked at the charts from the entire Gulfstream card from yesterday; some bad juju with timing going on… many races the run-up was not available and a few the race was hand timed 
)
Spielberg actually didn’t look bad in the Southwest with a strong second place finish from way behind.
Vequist is apparently OK.
Watching TVG this morning & they were talking about the timing & the Beyer figures from yesterday.
said basically throw it out. With only the one 2 turn race, it’s impossible to get an accurate Beyer figure… plus the timing issues.
I thought Spielberg looked really good considering he gave everyone else a couple of lengths head start. Couldn’t threaten the winner of course but ran well.
Senor Buscador out…
Rock Your World: only two starts, both on the turf, but great breeding and the Pasadena win was pretty good:
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/race/usa/sa/2021/2/27/8/pasadena-s-bt
He may go in the Santa Anita Derby.
Lovely mover–watch him trotting after the race.
Humm… today… today…
Life is Good looked good in the San Felipe but still can’t manage a straight run down the stretch. Medina Spirit was 2nd. Whoot-whoot… Dream Shake finished 3rd (bred by @LaurieB). It was a deep field so I thought a nice performance by Dream Shake.
Tampa Bay Derby… Longshot Helium picked up 50 KD points. Favorite Candy Man Rocky finished up the track, second to last.
Another longshot, Weyburn, took the Gotham at Aqueduct. Favorite Highly Motivated finished 3rd.
On a few side notes…
Some excellent racing at a few of the tracks today with photo finishes required to sort out the winner.
Having nothing to do with the KD or TC - today in the Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita, Dan Blacker trained his first G1 winning horse in Hit the Road. He said he gave himself 10 years to win a G1 and he accomplished that in 9 years. His wife is Christina Blacker who is an on-air personality for TVG - they had a camera and mike on her during the race to catch her emotions as she wasn’t sure Florent was going to get through any seams at the head of the stretch to the emotional moment after she knew Hit the Road had won. Seeing something like this shows me that there are jerks in the industry but also amazing people who really do care about their horses (just as in any industry).
Smith said Life is Good was looking at the Big Board in the infield, all lit up. He certainly won easily, and the field was pretty good.
Sure looks like a pretty good bunch of three-year-olds this year–Life is Good, Essential Quality, Greatest Honour, to name three.
He said that last time when Life is Good barely beat Medina Spirit… Life is Good was busy watching himself on the infield screen. Maybe blinkers for a few races?? Or BB is just good at excuses? 
Might be tolerable in a race with a smaller field and Life is Good out distancing the competition but may not play as well in a full KD field where the overall class in the field will be higher and Life is Good not as likely to out distance everyone. Don’t remember what Churchill’s infield looks like but even with social distancing and limited attendance, more than what Life is Good may be used to.
BB & MS always seem to have an excuse readily available…
maybe the horse is that green still or truly does like to look around…
But if they can’t get him to settle better & run straight, they can kiss any chance at winning the KD with him goodbye.
Unlike O’Neill who owned up, as the trainer and buck stops with him, to the fine and suspension for lidocaine that he did feel was a contamination issue but didn’t hide behind that excuse.
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/246546/oneill-suspended-fined-for-drug-violation
Blinkers might be a good idea. The horse has only had three starts, and will probably only have one more (Santa Anita Derby?) before the Kentucky Derby. Has a lot of growing up/maturing to do if he is going to be competitive in the KD.
Eh, trainers and jockeys rely on owners signing checks for a living, not in a position to do anything but put a positive spin on things. publically. Some are regular politicians in front of a camera going into great detail, others say something neutral but don’t elaborate. I miss the later lately.
LIG was well past the tote board and there was no infield crowd. MS still clearly had both hands cranking on left rein while, basically, letting the right rein flop loose and horse was still trying to turn right.
Yeah, he’s Green, no doubt but…KD is in 7 weeks. Probably only one race in front of a sparse crowd left before shipping and there will be a decent sized crowd around CD all week even with restrictions.
He may be a great horse in the making but BB has, maybe, played the real green horse card once too often. That is an editorial comment and just my opinion that this colt just isn’t ready. At best.
On another note, did see a really nice colt that pricked my interest in a (MSW I think) race at Oaklawn, believe he was coming off a layoff. Really nice mover and long, low, reachy stride in his 3rd start. He looked like he meant business from the second he stepped on the track to handily embarrassing the others. Noble Reflection. Him I like better then anything else but more for later in the year.
Belated congrats to LaurieB too. That was a nice race against top quality competition, gritty stretch drive, they both were grinding it out. Nice to see.
i suspect MS is in the ‘regular politician’ crowd. Why shoot yourself in the foot or other body parts saying something negative to annoy either/both the trainer and/or owners. I take what MS says about the ride with a grain of salt. If Life is Good gets to the Derby Mike wants to probably on his back and BB’s choice because he has ridden LIG before but a good way to loose that ride by something that puts the colt in a less than positive light.
Yeah, never had a race horse but have had many show horses, trainers and pro riders and you bet they can tell me the unvarnished truth privately. But it stays private. That I understand and even expect as a modest show horse owner. LiGs ownership has had spectacular success under BB, no way anybody they hire to train or ride is going to risk losing that account.
Concert Tour looked good in the Rebel.
Amazing how lightly raced some of these horses are that are being pointed to the Kentucky Derby. Seems like it is the way trainers think they should go now–a couple of starts at two, often only in maiden special weight company, a couple of starts at three to get points, and then the Derby.
It’s a trend I am not crazy about; you can go all the way back to Seattle Slew and Billy Turner for its origins. Slew had only 3 starts at two; he did win the Eclipse for best 2yo colt based on his win in the Champagne.
I know the horse can’t help who owns him, but I can’t root for the whingy Gary West. (I feel similarly about Sol Kumin, not sure why except he’s got that “bro” personality I find really irritating).
And I guess people look at Justify and say if he did it, my horse can do it. I guess there are a lot of questions now about how that was done.
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