Improving trio will try to avoid the bounce in sprint feature
Will they bounce? That’s the question handicappers must ponder when they examine a trio of Ohio-bred 3-year-olds coming back in three weeks or less after their Beyer Speed Figures suddenly rose between 22 and 34 points.
Gliding Alone, Alliseeisgold, and Unbridled Graduate all improved dramatically last time out. Whether any of them can repeat that performance in Saturday’s $75,000 Tall Stack Stakes at Belterra Park is hard to gauge. The 6 1/2-furlong race for Ohio-bred 3-year-olds drew a field of nine, including a three-horse coupled entry from trainer Bob Gorham.
Gliding Alone, whose previous best Beyer sprinting was a 39 in late March, skyrocketed to a 71 in winning the Howard B. Noonan at Mahoning Valley Race Course on April 18. He finished a half-length in front of Unbridled Graduate, who improved from a 48 to a 70 on the Beyer scale.
Alliseeisgold, who recorded a 39 Beyer in his career debut last August, jumped up to run a 73 Beyer while crushing maidens by 11 1/2 lengths April 29 at ThistleDown.
The other horse who’s hard to figure is Mound. Last year’s Ohio champion 2-year-old male regressed in his second start of 2015, beaten 10 3/4 lengths by Gliding Alone in the Noonan. He may rebound while returning to Belterra, where he went 3 for 5 as a 2-year-old, including a pair of stakes wins.
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KEY CONTENDERS
Mound (Last 3 Beyers: 45-54-60)
◗ His Beyers are headed in the wrong direction, but he’s fond of the surface at Belterra, where he won three in a row to close out his 2-year-old campaign.
Alliseeisgold (Beyers: 73-39)
◗ He whipped 11 rivals as the 6-5 favorite and flashed much better early speed than he did when he closed from far back to finish a distant third in his career debut in last summer’s Cleveland Kindergarten. From a small sampling this year, trainer Sharon Ruberto has been in the money with six of her seven starters, including two winners and two others who missed by a head.
Gliding Alone (Last 3 Beyers: 71-39-25)
◗ He somehow ran a lot faster for Deshawn Parker than he did for any of the other four jockeys who rode him in his first eight career starts. He easily won his maiden at Belterra last September.
Unbridled Graduate (Last 3 Beyers: 70-48-47)
◗ He has only one win in nine starts but has been third or better seven times. Two of his three starts this season have been very good. He is coupled with Boot Legger, the third-place finisher in the Noonan, and the lightly raced Bootsonthebeach, who won his maiden by 15 1/2 lengths two starts ago.