Woodbine Harness: Saturday 12/26 Analysis
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Saturday Afternoon 12/26 card at Woodbine Harness.
Garnet BarnsdaleDec 22, 2015
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Saturday Afternoon 12/26 card at Woodbine Harness.
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Saturday 12/26 card at Balmoral Park.
Multiple Grade 2 winner Amira’s Prince will stand the 2016 season at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Morriston, Fla., for a fee of $5,000.
Desert God, sire of former modern-day consecutive-win record holder Peppers Pride, died on Tuesday at the age 24 at Joe Allen’s farm near Abilene, Texas.
Bold Chieftain, a multiple stakes winner and popular runner in Northern California, sired his first winner when the 2-year-old gelding I Came to Party won a one-mile maiden-claiming race at Los Alamitos on Dec. 20 in his fourth start.
How's that attendance thing going at Santa Anita? The average daily crowd during the 2006-07 meet was 9,383. The average attendance during the corresponding meet in 2014-15 was 7,343. Where those 2,000 people a day went, no one really knows.
Some races prove difficult to assess because information comes from too narrow a band – a race, say, where many of the horses ran against each other in their most recent start. The data provided lacks dynamism, has no life. Well, the $75,000 Pago Hop, a one-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies Saturday at Fair Grounds, is absolutely nothing like that.
The new year's proximity has everything to do with the massive field in the $75,000 Woodchopper Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and handicappers could devote hours to trying to figure out what to do with the race.
While the sudden dismissal of trainer Maria Borell a day after Runhappy won the BC Sprint provided dirty-laundry fodder for kitchen-table pundits, the move is not likely to affect the colt's chances Saturday, opening day of the Santa Anita winter meet. Runhappy is the fastest horse in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes
The three $50,000 Maryland-bred stakes on the Saturday card at Laurel are every bit as interesting as the two $100,000 open-company headliners.