Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

Chicago Handicap

The 4^th of July has become a day for our family outing to Arlington Park. This year was our fifth annual excursion, and although we have enjoyed more financial success on some days in the past we still had a great time as usual. 

 The feature race on the grounds at Arlington was the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap, a 7-furlong sprint for older fillies and mares on the synthetic main track.  For the second year in a row Informed Decision was the winner of the Chicago Handicap, but she had to fight every inch of the final 100 yards to hold off Rinterval.  The latter set the pace throughout the race before the reigning Breeders’ Cup female sprint champion moved past here at the top of the stretch.  At that point it looked as though Informed Decision would draw off to a multi-length victory, but Rinterval pressed on and lost by only a neck.

Even if Informed Decision had won the Chicago Handicap by a big margin I would offer the same opinion I have after that race.  There will be a new BC female sprint champion this year.  I’m not certain that many horses have been so dominant on synthetics and so average off them as Informed Decision.  With the fall classic scheduled for Churchill Downs for the next two years it makes me confident that we will see one other than Informed Decision in the winner’s circle.

One other observation about the day’s racing at Arlington Park was how the wind impacted the early and late pace.  With a westerly breeze that was constant at speeds of 20 miles per hour or greater we saw fast fractions down the backstretch as the wind was at the back of the field.  When the pack turned for home, however, it was quite an opposite phenomenon as they headed into that wind.  I’ll be interested to see speed and pace figures .   I want to point out how valuable seeing races is for trip handicappers.  Down the road someone will handicap a next race for the horses that ran today, and if that horse player does not know about that wind he may overlook a part of the picture in determining the form and fitness of those that raced.

Firecracker

D. Wayne Lucas is a very deserving icon in the world of thoroughbred horseracing.  He also is a below average trainer at this point in his career with a proclivity of entering his horses in races in which they do not belong.  When Mine That Bird was moved to his stable I opined that the move did not make sense to me.  The horse appears to love the main track at Churchill Downs, so Lucas chose – you guessed it – a turf race for his return from a long layoff.  With the horse being the Kentucky Derby Champion and ridden by Churchill Downs riding champ Calvin Borel it was easy to see the underlay coming.  He finished a soundly beaten eighth in the race, passing six horses after running at the back of the field for the first half-mile.  Tizdejevu took the field of 14 gate-to-wire for the win.

Lucas has said that he wanted to enter Mine That Bird in a race at Churchill rather than ship him after he had worked so well for his return.  I really wonder what the horse got out of the race Sunday!

Jersey Shore

It was great to see Discreetly Mine rally against a pretty competitive field in the Jersey Shore to score a win in the Grade 3 contest.  The crop of three-year-old sprinters is becoming robust as we head into the late summer and fall races that are made much more interesting when competition abounds.  I look forward to seeing D’Funnybone and Discreetly Mine hook up at Monmouth Park or Saratoga later in the summer.

Curlin Connections Will Be Tough in 2011

Perhaps the most scintillating performance of the weekend came on Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Bashford Manor.  Kantharos, the two-year-old son of Lion Heart, out of the Southern Halo mare Contessa Halo put on quite a show as he looked very professional in winning one of the early stakes races for two-year-olds by 9-1/2 lengths.  Kantharos is owned by Jess Jackson, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Robby Albarado, the Curlin team  This one looks as though he may be good enough to have them compare him to Curlin – and that’s real good company.