Popular claimer Roll Dem Bones faces tougher
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Roll Dem Bones is far from the best horse at Emerald Downs, but he might be the most popular – at least to the racetrack’s trainers.
In each of his last five races, which have yielded three wins and two seconds for the 7-year-old son of Freedom Child, Roll Dem Bones has been claimed by new connections – twice for $3,500 and three times for $5,000. Joe Toye, who trained him at the start of this claiming spree, has claimed him back twice and has him entered in race 9 Saturday, an $8,000 claiming sprint with an enhanced purse of $20,000, the highest for non-maidens on the 10-race card.
When asked why he thought Roll Dem Bones has been such a hot commodity this meet, Toye replied, “That’s really what is surprising to me. He was productive at that level. There’s only seven or eight horses in that category and he turned out to be one of the tough ones. Everybody wanted the horse that was gonna be live in there, and he was one of the live horses.
Roll Dem Bones, who has won while either leading or stalking, faces a couple of rivals in Baladi and Bluegrass Go Go who are a cut above the horses he’s faced this year. With the enhanced purse, Toye feels like the juice is worth the squeeze.
“He’s in that race for $8,000 because that purse has been enhanced,” said Toye. “We would have run him back for $5,000, but this purse has more money to it, so it made more sense. But it’s a lot tougher race.”
Bluegrass Go Go and Baladi both have tactical speed and will likely want to sit off the pace in the six-furlong race, which may give Silvio Amador, who rides Roll Dem Bones for the first time since a July 3 win, impetus to send his horse early.
“I’m gonna leave it up to Amador,” said Toye, who has nine wins from 64 starts at the current meet. “The horse responds pretty well to him. I don’t quite know why, but I’m not gonna question him. If the horse breaks out on the lead, I don’t think he’s gonna try to slow him down.”
Race 4, a six-furlong sprint for $15,000 claimers, has more early speed than race 9. Here, Toye starts Conrad Meadows first off the claim after a gate-to-wire, 9 1/4-length victory in which he earned a career-high 73 Beyer Speed Figure over 6 1/2 furlongs on a track that favored closers that day.
“That was a remarkable time [1:15.51] and it looked like he was well within himself,” said Toye. “I don’t think the horse has to be on the lead. There are about three or four other horses who just want the lead and that’s all there is to it. If he can race off of them and have more gas in the tank down the lane, we might have made a great claim. He’s getting good, and when a horse starts to get good, you never know.”
Among Conrad Meadows’s staunchest rivals in the race is West Coast Bull, who starts first off the claim for Frank Lucarelli’s barn following a neck win in which he earned a career-high 77 Beyer.
“I always kind of liked him,” said Lucarelli, who is 12 for 88 this year at Emerald. “We got him in a shake. Around here, you need speed, but I don’t think he’s a one-dimensional horse. The race came up pretty tough as far as speed goes.”
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