Woodbine Harness: Monday 11/16 Analysis
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Monday 11/16 card at Woodbine Harness.
Garnet BarnsdaleNov 14, 2015
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Monday 11/16 card at Woodbine Harness.
Brewster Smith's analysis of the Monday 11/16 card at Yonkers Raceway.
California Chrome recorded his first published work, but his second work since going back into training, with an easy three furlongs in 39.60 seconds early Saturday morning at Los Alamitos.
Skill Not Luck (#4, 6-1) returns in Saturday's sixth race at Aqueduct, a 1 1/16-mile allowance optional claimer on turf. It will be his first start since finishing second by 1 1/4 lengths in a claiming race Sept. 23 at Belmont Park. The first-, third-, and fifth-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts. Get the Key Race report as part of DRF Plus. Sign up for DRF Plus here.
Annacotty was 16th of 24 in a handicap steeplechase last March at Cheltenham Racecourse in western England. That was better than his subsequent start, when he fell in a handicap chase over the Grand National fences at Aintree in Liverpool last April.
A pair of competitive races scheduled for turf bookend a pick three play in the middle of Aqueduct’s Sunday program.
Sunday’s card at Del Mar doesn’t whet the appetite in a major way, but there are a few interesting opportunities for horseplayers. I’ll look to play a midcard daily double as well as the Sunday feature, the Desi Arnaz Stakes.
The eighth race Friday night at Delta Downs was declared a no-contest after the starting gate wasn’t pulled from the track before the horses hit the stretch in the two-turn optional claimer. There was a malfunction with the gate, the track announced, but crews were able to move it into the infield just as the horses were approaching it.
The Keeneland November breeding stock sale, perhaps sparked by the Breeders’ Cup in the final days of October, started off red-hot, with a high-dollar champion and record-priced weanling in its opening days. From there, the auction continued to burn, concluding with some of its best figures ever and continuing moderate upward trends in most categories.
The sensation of the 1923 racing season in England was a beautiful gray filly named Mumtaz Mahal. The “Flying Fill” later became one of the greatest foundation mares of the 20th century, and another direct tail-female descendant attained graded stakes-winner status on Nov. 7, when Spelling Again won the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs.