Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Silsbee should fare better on turf
Belmont at the Big A | Race 6 | Post Time 3:38 p.m. (ET)
Forever to Go (#10) and Wild Mischief (#9) met a couple of times during their 2-year-old seasons in each of their only two prior turf attempts. Forever to Go showed her typical speed in both of those grass races before fading in the last furlong each time. She was beaten by Wild Mischief in their first meeting, but turned the tables on that rival when they met on Oct. 26. However, Wild Mischief didn't get an ideal trip in that most recent turf start. She got steadied moving down the backstretch and then encountered traffic when attempting to angle out at the quarter pole. She hasn't run well on dirt since then, but she's clearly more of a turf horse and now gets back on that preferred surface. I definitely preferred that Mike Maker trainee of these two contenders.
There are some intriguing first time turfers to consider. The horse with the most convincing dam's side pedigree is Mega Changer (#1), who is out of Grade 1 winner and millionaire turf mare Megahertz. She hasn't been nearly as strong a producer as she was a racehorse, but Megahertz has produced two turf winners from her three winning foals. Mega Changer showed speed before backing up on debut, and last time rated off the pace before making some mild late progress. She seems like a candidate to benefit from this surface switch.
My top pick is another horse trying grass for the first time. Silsbee (#4) was meant for this surface on debut last fall and stayed in to get some experience when the race was rained off. She broke a bit awkwardly before settling in mid-pack. She swung out in upper stretch but lacked a late punch. She was spinning her wheels over that sloppy surface, but her action suggested that she should take to turf. Vekoma is an emerging turf influence, winning at nearly 20 percent with this turf starters. There isn't so much obvious turf pedigree on the dam's side, but the dam is a half-sister to three-time turf sprint winner Queen of the Track. George Weaver is 7 for 32 (22%, $3.87 ROI) with horses switching to turf for the first time in sprints over five years, with 17 hitting the board in that sample.