Y17 February Week Two

[rendezvous]

Scratch a true hero I entered him Twice

[Sammy]

Scratch In my Remains please he is entered at The Wire

[Isabelle]

Please move French Quarter to the Vagrancy Stakes.

[ripley]

My Portrait Derby - G5 - 10f - T - 3yo
Win. Stylishly Wild
Place. Alchemy

[ripley]

Watsonville Stakes - G3 - 8f - D
Win. Noadiance
Place. Escape Artist
Show. Dark Maiden
Fourth. Crooked Intentions



Crooked Intentions: She was cutting back from a marathon distance to the mile distance on a different surface and seemed a little out of her element amongst the speedier horses. She's a good quality mare, but it seemed strange to go back to dirt after rolling to victory in a turf race.

[lolly]

Vagrancy Stakes - G5 - 11f - D - 2yo
Win. Bold Trick
Place. Flashbang
Show. Sillencio
Fourth. French Quarter
Fifth. Sweet Talker

The top three really pushed each other from pretty early on in the race. Sillencio broke into the lead from the start but found himself fighting for the position with both Flashbang and Bold Trick quite early on, and didn’t quite have the experience at the distance as the other two did to be able to maintain it. Bold Trick had glued himself onto Flashbang, and Flashbang was easily influenced and became preoccupied with attempting to out-do him - pushing his pace faster, earlier than he usually would. Bold Trick has won at this distance already, and wasn’t much phased by the eagerness of Sillencio and Flashbang and found himself with the stamina to spare to take the win.

French Quarter and Sweet Talker simply didn’t recognise the huge battle between the top three colts early enough, allowing them to get several lengths ahead, and Sweet Talker having only raced at 8 furlongs thus far was perhaps a little overwhelmed by the distance and competitiveness of the colts and in the end didn’t have enough time to recover the big distance as a closer. French Quarter and Sweet Talker are both impressive horses in my eyes, but I really felt the top three pushed the pace much earlier than either of them were expecting.

[rendezvous]

ROCKINGHAM SPECIAL* - G2+ - 12f - D - F/M
WIN. Adrasteia
PLACE. Awestruck
SHOW. Everyday Smile

The beautiful Radiance filly, Adrasteia took a well deserved win today. She came off a second place finish in the Belle Victoire Derby and two weeks off did this filly good. She was extremely focused and had her head completely in the game this morning. She managed to lead the field for a good majority of the race before being overtaken by Awestruck and Everyday Smile not far behind. Adrasteia wasn't having any of that drama, however, and still finished three lengths ahead of the other fillies.Awestruck seemed a bit nervous out of the gate today and was bent up on nervous energy as she tackled the field, giving her jockey a bit of a hard time. Everyday Smile is the older horse of the field, but the four year old horses got the upper hand today.

CARNIVAL STAKES* - G2+ - 9f - T
WIN. Scintilla
PLACE. Devil's Flair
SHOW. Passionate God
4th Secret's Surprise

Talk about girl's night out! Last year's Virginia Derby winner was not playing around today and gave the boys a run for their money. It was a true battle of the sexes today with two fillies and two colts on the field. Only Scintilla managed to overtake the boys today with Secret's Surprise being overpowered by Passionate God for the duration of the race. The Foolish Lad filly practically ran her heart out trying to stay on Devil's Flair's heels. The Augusto colt was eager to push the pack to run faster, attempting to tire them out along the way. He was a big bully on the track and occasionally came a little too close to Passionate God during the first half of the race. Passionate God had his mind in the wrong place as he wasted a bit of energy in the gates, breaking last before scurrying to get a lead position. This was where Devil's Flair edged him on, encouraging him to run faster although he himself had no intention of surpassing him just yet. He tried to do the same to Scintilla, but this filly didn't care, she was happy to run her little heart out. Secret's Surprise stayed out of the drama and kept to the back of the pack not wanting to get between Devil's Flair. When Devil's Flair stopped playing devil's advocate, Scintilla had already crossed the wire, pulling up with her nose flaring. Although she won today, it was a hard race for the filly.

[cruisey]

Bowl of Flowers Stakes
WIN Key West
PLACE Bulletproof
show Shady Biscuit