Fizzy heads postward this afternoon in a $20,000 Optional Claiming race going a mile and a sixteenth scheduled for the turf. With rain all day yesterday and a 'soft' turf course for the feature, it remains to be seen if the race will stay on the turf for this afternoon. The forecast is for overcast skies, but being in Nevada at the moment I can't get a feel for what the weather is like. Fizzy has run pretty well over wet courses before, but anything too far afield (sloppy, soft) and he has had problems.
Here is the rundown for today's 6th race from Canterbury Park:
1 Smuggler's Hold (Nolan): After a couple of month's breather this Southwest shipper is back and though not impressive before vacation, those efforts were against much stronger than here.
2 FIZZY POP (Ferrer)
3 King of Rhythm (Williams): Was absolutely trounced in his Canterbury debut and now climbs in class to take on these.
4 Ice Rocket (Hebert): Another who came up well short last out, albeit in stakes company and after 10 months of vacation.
5 Tie Rod (Eikleberry): '09 debut at TuP was excellent followed up by a bit of a stumble in Canterbury debut. He last won in 2007, thought that was the $100,000 TuP Derby.
6 Palm Reader (Rivera): Another also ran out of the 10,000 Lakes. May be in a tough spot here but a nice 5F bullet work as a prep.
7 Gilded Leader (Goodwin): Iowa-bred's last two Optional Claiming races at PrM were $7,000 and $5,000 where he was an also ran. While PrM horses have been able to step up when they ship north, this'd be a pretty high climb.
8 Gesundheit (Butler): Dean chose the $50,000 claim over Fizzy. He was right last time, will he be again?
That's the field of eight. It looks pretty evenly divided between some contenders and pretenders. Fizzy heads into the race after a tough 3rd place finish last out when a premature move made him a bit weary in deep stretch. He had a nice 5F work last week and his best '09 Beyer could win this. It looks as if King of Rhythm and Tie Rod will prompt the early pace and the rest likely to come running a bit later.
Questions to be answered from Fizzy's main rivals in this: Can Tie Rod bounce back? Are Gesundheit's steady declining Beyers indicative of anything? Does Smuggler's Hold have enough to beat the field on class alone? Finally, who stays in and who scratches if end up over the wet dirt?
I wish I was there to see it, but a prior Little League obligation has me in Nevada with son Forrest this morning (they are still in the tournament and For is catching and pitching pretty well - even with 8 stitches in his throwing thumb). I will be hotel-less so there is a good chance that I won't even see the race despite the plethora of race books around me. Oddly enough, they tend to frown on 8-year olds in the book, even if Dad does own a piece of the horse!
We have a real live shot here and I look forward to checking the messages from a darkened movie theatre. We'll try and sit in the back row so as not to bother the neighbors with the light!
UPDATE
The race is officially OFF the turf. I am still cautiously optimistic about the race, but I worry if it is too sloppy. Some horse needs to win it, though, and Fiz and Palm Reader have the only wins over a wet surface in their pasts. Fingers crossed for a good result and that everyone comes home just fine.
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