FRIDAY WORKOUTS:
At Pegasus Thoroughbred Training Center (which I've never heard of, but it's evidently in Seattle), Carving worked four furlongs in 52.10.
At Santa Anita Park, Sunland Park Derby winner Govenor Charlie traveled a half mile in 49.00.
Will Take Charge and Oxbow both worked at Oaklawn Park. Oxbow went six furlongs in 1:14.60 in preparation for the Arkansas Derby. Will Take Charge did five furlongs in 1:01 flat. It's still unclear whether he'll train up to the Derby or start in the Blue Grass Stakes; the former option seems more likely.
SATURDAY WORKOUTS:
Oh, and there are a lot of them on Saturday, and all of them are five furlongs. Amerigo Vespucci went in 1:00.60 at Laurel Park.
At Oaklawn, Heaven's Runway worked in 1:02.60.
At Churchill, Fear the Kitten clocked 1:02.20 on the training track, while Dynamic Sky went in 1:01.40 on the main oval.
A trio of workers at Keeneland; Dewey Square, Taken by the Storm and Uncaptured all went five furlongs, clocking 1:03 flat, 1:04.80 and 1:01.40, respectively.
Now, on to the races:
At Aqueduct, the clash of two undefeated colts went off without a hitch:
In the end, it was Verrazano that came out on top. Sitting off a very slow pace set by a huge longshot, he took command as they rounded the turn and held off challenges from Vyjack and Normandy Invasion to win. It was his biggest test yet, and he passed it.
Was I impressed with the win? Well...not really. Off of that crawling pace, Verrazano should have looked stronger in victory. What I saw was a tired horse dawdling home, with just barely enough in the tank to finish first. The gallop out wasn't strong either; both Normandy Invasion and Vyjack passed him galloping out.
Of course, that could mean anything. Pletcher could have sent Verrazano out with his B game in order to preserve the colt for his real test. Hopefully this race didn't take too much out of him.
The horse that I was really impressed with was Normandy Invasion. This son of Tapit looked great. With a lot of speedsters headed to the Kentucky Derby, it's entirely feasible that this colt could have enough to run at and win. Normandy Invasion has had a terrible case of seconditis his whole life, but maybe ten furlongs is what he needs to succeed.
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The Santa Anita Derby went off all right, too. There isn't a video up on YouTube yet, but if you go to CalRacing, you can sign up for a free account and watch the replay (as well as countless other replays) on their site. CalRacing is a god-send for catching up with California racing.
Anyway, I'm still trying to get over Flashback's loss. I keep trying to come up with things in my head to spin it positively, but I can't. All I can say is that Doug O'Neill has won yet another Santa Anita Derby with another overlooked horse. Now, while Goldencents and I'll Have Another are two different horses, it's important to look at parallels between years.
There's not much to say about this race. It was Goldencents and Flashback and the rest were nowhere. Hopefully Baffert's gray will do much better in Kentucky. I am extremely happy for jockey Kris Krigger - this could be a big break for him, as it was for Mario Guttierez last year.
Right now, in my eyes, the East Coast colts are better than the West Coast colts. We'll see how that holds up in the next four weeks.
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