Hollywood Park - May 10, 2008 Race 1

Md80000
Post Time: 1:20PM

Victorio – I watched his last race and it looked pretty strong. He received a 73 Beyer but that may possibly be a bit understated. He beat Home of the Gold by over a length and Texas Devil by 3 lengths and their prior best Beyer in their last two races were 73 and 74,respectively, so perhaps the 73 Victorio received ought to be closer to 77? Furthermore, he ran a nice final 1/16 of a mile and the field was fairly spread out in the end, indicating strength. The top pick.

Bringbackabillion and Unusual Justin – Bringbackabillion’s drillas are nothing that stand out, his sire’s first time start stats are poor and his sires synthetic numbers are poor. Unusual Justin’s sires first time and synthetic stats are similarly average. Unknown quantities obviously but prefer others

South Bay Scoty – I think he has a shot here, but the layoff concerns me a bit – it has been almost two months since his last race and it was almost 3 months between his last two races. He is drilling very well and has two bullet drills. I watched his last race and as the comment in the past performances note, he was off a bit slow. Contender

Buzzin Mon – This one is getting a little bit of buzz. Looking over the field he raced against last time routing, they appear to be not much better than low to mid 70s Beyer types, save for the winner Power Blitz who came back to do well in an Allowance race. I would’ve liked to have seen just a little more the last effort. He is taking that important drop from a straight maiden to a maiden claiming. Knocking on the door, but prefer others.

Mr. Inn Zone – The previous Beyers of the horse that finished ahead of him last out were 68,71, and 72, and for the horse that finished behind him in third, 56 and 52. Others here seem to have faced stronger fields. For example, the Speed Figures of those that finished around Victorio are somewhat stronger. Mr. Inn Zone finished pretty close to the 3rd through 5th place finishers and the class level was only Md32000 last out. Trained by Spawr which is a positive but prefer others.

Kaffeinator – The morning line favorite has outstanding connections with Dominguez and Sadler. Ramon is here to ride for Bobby Frankel in the Jim Murray in race 3. This one is tough to eliminate, but when comparing the field that he faced last out as compared to the field Victorio faced last out, it appears Kaffeinator may have been running against the weaker field, despite running at a higher class level. I’ll stand against this one at the favorite just because I prefer others at better ML odds.

Isle of Japan is interesting for two reasons. First, his sire Hennesy has outstanding synthetic surface statistics, according to the book of Sire Stats. Secondly, his drills show that he does have some ability, including a gate drill of 46 and 4 for 4F. The last was on the downhill turf so that can be excused. Difficult call, not really enough data, but does have some positives. I’ll watch and see what he does before I put money on him though. If you like him, take a chance. Note: With 45 minutes to post, he is 11-1.

Win
Victorio (2)

Exacta
South Bay Scoty, Victorio BOX (1)