Mike Watchmaker

Hallandale Beach, Fl. – The palpable sense of disappointment that permeated Gulfstream Park Sunday morning after the news broke that Algorithms had to be scratched from the Fountain of Youth Stakes gave way late Sunday afternoon to a sense that all was right in the world again. Union Rags, the future book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, delivered a knockout victory in the Fountain of Youth in his first start as a 3-year-old.

[bc_video_id:244524:]One way to look at Creative Cause’s third place finish as the 1-2 favorite in Sunday’s San Vicente at Santa Anita is that it was the perfect prep, just enough to knock the rust off while setting him up for a successful stretch back out to two turns, around which he won the Grade 1 Norfolk and was a close third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall.

[bc_video_id:244517:]The 2012 racing season has barely begun, and there is a long way between now and when championships are decided in the fall. Nevertheless, there were two noteworthy performances Saturday by horses who have already proven to be of championship caliber.

A few thoughts on what turned out to be a very popular Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which concluded Sunday:

Saturday struck me as a highly unusual day of stakes racing. There were 16 stakes across the country with six figure purses, and nine of those races were won by prohibitive, if not heavy favorites. I know these results could be taken as another illustration of the weakening of the breed, or as evidence of serious thinning of quality at the top of the sport. But whatever the probable cause, or the expectation of odds-on favorites in a more general sense, when you look at the list of Saturday’s tiny priced stakes winners, it’s still stunning: