South Florida Saturday

Yesterday was a beautiful day for racing down at Gulfstream. I'm assuming this off course because Comcast doesnt provide the horse racing channels in any package, choosing instead to provide coverage of the sport not unlike a Pakistani cricket league. Thank you state of Georgia.

There were a handful of good 3 year old races, most around 7 furlongs which featured horses of future interest as we progress down the trail.

The 2nd was a 7 furlong featuring the Pletcher/Sciametta trained Soaring By who went off the even odds favorite. He was beaten by a length and a half by 16-1 Spin Master, trained by Dale Romans. You can probably look for both to stretch out in their next start as the Derby fever has induced more than one natural sprinter to try to run a mile and quarter.

The 3rd showed the return of 2006 Derby runner Keyed Entry who had not run since the 4th of July last year. The layoff didnt appear to be a problem as he lead wire to wire in quick fractions.

The 4th showed the debut of the Helen Pitts trained Curlin, the 2-1 favorite, at 7 furlongs. The former maiden made the trip a quarter second faster than Spin Master's allowance time and hit the wire 12 1/2 lengths ahead of Winstrella who was another 5 in front of the rest of the field.

The 5th was the Grade II Swale, a 6 1/2 length race intended for sprinters, but occasionally used as a springboard to the Derby required graded stakes earnings. Adore the Gold picked up the $90,000 first place paycheck and could very well show up in the Fountain of Youth in a couple of weeks.

The 3 year old feature of the day was the Grade III Holy Bull and the early Derby favorite Nobiz Like Shobiz showed he was worth the acclaim and no has 3 wins and a second in 4 career starts. Second choice Scat Daddy finished 3rd and both have the money needed to get in the big race.

2006 Horse of the Year Invasor returned in the Donn to score an easy 2 length victory at 2-5 odds. It's a welcome change to see a Breeder's Cup Classic champion race the following year and I applaud Shadwell for keeping him in training while his worth accumulates in the breeding shed.

The final race of the day was a 1 1/8 mile allowance which saw 108-1 afterthought Hal's My Hope score a ridiculous upset which more than likely paid off huge for those in the crowd who enjoying taking the longest shot in the field or the girl who but a couple bucks down because she has a cat named Hal.

Thanks a million to comcast for allowing me to find all of this out in printed drf charts. You really came through for me. Maybe you could cut out our connection during the Super Bowl tonight.