Hello all! Those of you familiar with my "Slew's Fast Horses"
listings have seen on one or two occasions a "key Horse" listed at the
top of the daily file. This does not happen often because these horses
come from my own evaluation of fast races that merit a closer look. I
don't pick many but one or two get selected and when they run, get added
to the daily file. Tomorrow (Sat.) is one of those times.
The Sands Point, a Grade II turf event run May 29th at Belmont Park
produced a flying finish that involved three horses: Better Lucky,
Regalo Mia and Zultanite. The favorite, Somali Lemonade was a curious
4th and was never really involved. The race ran quickly with the
exception of the 1st quarter. Better Lucky and Regalo Mia came home dead
tight in 1:42.75 with the last 16th run in a nice 6.09 seconds. The
track record was set by Roman Envoy in 1992 at 1:39.38 carrying 117 lbs.
It was his best year, with 6 wins from 10 starts with earnings in
excess of 450k. He was bred and owned by the venerable Fred W. Hooper.
It should be noted that in the Sands Point all carried 117 lbs except
Somali Lemonade who weighed in at 121 lbs.
While both horses, Somali lemonade and Zultanite are dropping into the
Grade III level, and while I tend to look to horses that finished
together to reverse themselves the next time they face each other, I
think not this time. Zultanite has held his from since his maiden win in
November and showed courage on the rail as he was headed in deep
stretch by Better Lucky. If he isn't dead tired, he should be tough in
this spot, with rider Paco Lopez winning at 22% for the meet.
I will be at Monmouth Park tomorrow and barring anything unexpected in
the paddock and walking ring, Zultanite will be my key horse in that
race. I will probably hedge just a bit using an exacta box with Somali
Lemonade in case she wakes up. But the listing in Slew's file stands:
SLEW'S FAST HORSES for (06/23/12) v1.0
CURRENT KEY HORSES (< 90 DAYS)
Zultanite - MP (11) 05/28/12 # 7
For whatever YOU do, good luck and good 'capping!
Slew