King's review: Too many short prices

Friday, June 13, review

Skimpy payoffs galore

As it has been for much of the current Churchill Downs meet, due to fairly continuous short fields, it was hard to catch a price Friday. Seven of the nine winners returned less than $6 apiece.

Even one of the two exceptions, Nice Number in race 7, was the 3-1 second choice – hardly a bomb. Only Trace Creek in race 5 paid a fat price, returning $39. And it should come as no surprise that the fifth race had the deepest field on the day, with nine runners.

Beyond a shortage of entries, contributing to these short payoffs are two other factors: an abundance of scratches and some of the entrants looking like “filler” and not fitting with the rest.

Consider the ninth race, won by 6-5 shot Keening. It gets scratched down to seven horses. And then two of the remaining horses – Conspired and Twenty Three Darby – are hopeless longshots and run sixth and seventh.

So, what originally looked like a field of 10 becomes a field of seven in which one could only make a reasonable case for five of the runners.

Plenty of claiming action

Despite the short fields that would appear to offer slim pickings, horsemen have remained active at the claiming box.

Three of the horses in the second– first-place Nick’s Pick, fourth-place Thanks Bro, and fifth-place Miraculousmo – were claimed from the race, a $15,000 non-winners-of-three claiming event.

Then three more were taken in the next race, a maiden $15,000 race, with the victorious Kowboy Tuff getting taken, along with third-place Frontkonsteen and fifth-place Blue Bull.

The richest claim of the day was Shy Rosa, whom trainer Kenny McPeek claimed for $50,000 for his Magdalena Racing. Shy Rosa won easily in race 4 and still has her allowance conditions – hence her appeal, along with a good pedigree.

She ran the highest Beyer Speed Figure of the day, an 82, for completing seven furlongs in 1:24.50 over a fast track that was a little slower than normal.

Other notable winning Beyers

Race 1: Highroller Dave, 80
Race 2: Nick’s Pick, 80
Race 5: Trace Creek, 76
Race 6: Rumba, 77
Race 8: Unbridledexplosion, 80
Race 9: Keening, 78

Horse to Watch

Aqtaar
Trainer: Dan Peitz
Last race: June 13, 5th
Finish: 5th by 2 1/2
Beyer: 70
Normally a front-runner, this horse uncharacteristically raced seven lengths off the early pace while experiencing a wide trip. Left with too much to do, he finished reasonably well, finishing in a dead heat for fifth, but lacked the kick necessary to win from where he was placed.