Recap of Friday's (Disasterous) Selections

What a nightmare! As I sit writing this there are still two Friday races to go, but if feels like I'm irreparably damaged! The recap by race:

Marathon

It was the first of many exciting finishes on the day. In retrospect, I should have given eventual winner Cloudys Night more respect and had him involved in the exotics at least. Night Lite was washy before the race and didn't want to get in the gate - I knew then that I had lost before I even got started. Given Man of Iron's performances over Poly in Europe, I probably should have paid him more attention than I did. It was an exciting start to the day, but hardly a profitable one.

Finish: Only my second choice, Mastery, hit the board finishing third.

Juvenile Fillies Turf

Tapitsfly and Rose Catherine were much the best of this group. It proves that the switch to turf for RC was just what she needed and her big jump in form there was no fluke. I WAY overvalued Lillie Langtry's Euro form in much the same way I had disregarded Man of Iron's in the Marathon.


Finish: My second and third choices finished, interestingly enough, second and third.

Juvenile Fillies

She Be Wild capitalized on an absolutely perfect trip for the win. I'm not sure that she was the best horse in this field, but she stayed out of the trouble, had the rail to herself and was the victor left standing.

Finish: In a clever bit of ironic wordplay, only my top choice, Blind Luck, hit the board finishing third.


F&M Turf


Midday, with a big move into contention down the backside and an opening on the rial in the stretch out finished hard charging Pure Clan and Forever Together, the latter spotting this quality field WAY too much early on to be a factor late.

Finish: Again, only my top choice, Forever Together, hit the board. Again the finish was 3rd.

F&M Sprint

Good thing I boxed the exacta as Ventura left herself too much work at the end of the race. Informed Decision had the great ride, rating just off the pace and left plenty in the tank for the finish. Finally, an exacta ticket...not much of one, but a winner is a winner.

Finish: Hard as it is to believe, my first two choices finished second and first.

Ladies Classic

Careless Jewel could not be rated and drilled through suicidal fractions effectively taking me out of the race before the horses even hit the stretch. Life is Sweet won in a commanding performance and putting a nail in my proverbial handicapping coffin today.

Finish: As in most of the races today, the best I could do was Music Note getting another third.

Well, last year my first day was one for the record books while my Saturday was a disaster. Here's hoping that the inverse is true this Breeder's Cup weekend!