Mike Watchmaker

Game On Dude and Beholder were terrific winning the Santa Anita Handicap and Las Virgenes Saturday. I mean, they were all class. Game On Dude has always been a little iffy at 10 furlongs, but not in this Big Cap as he won by a city block. And Beholder proved her upset loss in the Santa Ynez in January was an aberration as she scored with total authority.

Hello from sunny, warm Gulfstream Park, where I offer some thoughts on the Saturday’s stakes that were just run both here and at Fair Grounds: As a person who liked Orb in the Fountain of Youth, I still kind of like him after he got up to beat Violence. But I like Violence a lot more Saturday night than I did at any time before.

Royal Delta is a very interesting horse, and not only because she is a two-time champion, and obviously top class. Most race horses follow a traditional career arc. Horses improve from 2 to 3 and often from 3 to 4 due more to the physical maturation process than because of racing experience, although the latter does help. Then physical maturation eventually plateaus, as does performance, and if a horse sticks around long enough, you will see inevitable decline.

A few weekend thoughts: I understand why people might say that, given the way the race unfolded, Animal Kingdom was best in finishing second to Point of Entry in Saturday’s Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. I just don’t agree with it. At all.

I would think after Saturday, Kentucky Derby future book odds and personal Derby rankings everywhere underwent major resets. Winning performances like the ones we got from Verrazano in a Gulfstream allowance race, Flashback in the Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita, and Revolutionary in the Withers at Aqueduct will tend to do that.