World Record in the Aristides and World Beater in the Audubon, two of five Churchill stakes Saturday, just missed the cut for this Weekend GamePlan. I like both horses well enough but found three better options.
Regret
Some people poke fun at me for frequent gallop-out references. Too often those come in the form of complaints about how the gallop-out is presented. Hats off to Southern California, which since time immemorial has done it right (widest angle shot possible, hold it for a dozen seconds), and to tracks like Churchill, Tampa Bay, Colonial, and Hawthorne, who all made changes for the better at my urging.
There’s no reason after a race to zoom in on the winner and then cut away from the shot after a couple seconds for a replay of the finish. Of course, many gallop-outs mean nothing, but in some instances they’re a useful tool. All by way of saying: What a gallop-out Mechaya turned in after the Mamzelle Stakes!
Once you become a gallop-out aficionado, subtleties come forth. Of course, a horse finishing fastest likely will go out in front, but there are permutations. Mechaya did somehow nab third in the 5 1/2-furlong Mamzelle at Churchill Downs after she was just 11th at the stretch call, but hers was a more steadily accelerating run that started about the five-sixteenths pole. She did not immediately go past the two horses who beat her but passed them after a half-furlong and, doing so comfortably, wound up a mile in front onto the backstretch.
Context: Mamzelle winner Shisospicy is headed to Royal Ascot and is a very, very fast 3-year-old filly turf sprinter. Mechaya, coming from dead last in the Mamzelle, is not a sprinter. She did win her career debut over 6 1/2 furlongs, but Kentucky Downs races at that distance play more like seven, and Mechaya finished her 2-year-old season with two routes. She’s not a dirt horse, so throw out her Golden Rod, and her Jessamine fourth was good considering her impossible trip. The Mamzelle? That was just the good veteran trainer Jimmy DiVito giving the filly a comeback run. The Regret was the goal. The gallop-out told us so.
Jersey Derby
Outrunner was getting a fine pocket trip making his career debut last fall at Laurel Park – until he wasn’t. Blocked and unable to get through in upper stretch, Outrunner had to come around the leaders and in so doing revealed his greenness. He took a drastic swerve out as he started to pass those horses, then came off his line one more time before finally straightening out. Once he did, Outrunner went whoosh and won a race he shouldn’t have.
Colts Neck Stable has its own training facilities not far from Monmouth. It’s a New Jersey operation with a Monmouth focus, and you had better believe Outrunner’s second start, a May 11 first-level allowance, functioned as a Jersey Derby prep. Not only did Outrunner face a salty cast of older horses, he got only three to four pounds from them, a small fraction of a proper weight-for-age spread this time of year. Stuck in tight quarters from upper to midstretch, Outrunner was slow to change leads while diving to the rail, and once he did, he finished and galloped out encouragingly.
Uncatalyzed will take some beating on the front end. Outrunner can run him down.
Eclipse
When Dataman won the 1 3/16-mile Bald Eagle Derby as a summer 3-year-old, he looked like a horse for 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-mile races. Now, it’s starting to look like Dataman thrives at middle distances, and as a slower-maturing horse, he’s probably just peaking now at age 5. Put it all together and Dataman, second off a winter break, looks like a good bet at a fair price in the Eclipse.
His comeback race last month at Laurel impressed: I’ve never seen Dataman show the same acceleration as he did after shaking loose past the eighth pole. He hit the line hard and got in exactly the kind of run that ought to produce improvement in the second start of this form cycle.
The switch to synthetic? Dataman is based at Fair Hill, which has a Tapeta training track. The supposedly fastest horses in the Eclipse are prepping for longer distances. Dataman might have found his best distance.
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