Yes, those screams you heard last week that may have brought to mind the Edvard Munch painting were ours because Space Mountain, the horse we roundly booed in our Pix because he didn’t belong on the card to say nothing of his short stride length went wire-to-wire in a totally implausible performance.  That our choice, Super Stan, lost all chance when he was slammed at the start and then squeezed back into oblivion at the quarter pole by our second choice Our Way just made it worse.  However, on that same Gulfstream card, two

That was some show put on by three 3-year-olds last Saturday at Gulfstream Park. They all dominated, ran fast, and gave the strong hint that there is much more to come.

Mohaymen was even better than advertised in the Holy Bull Stakes, leaving a Grade 1 winner in Greenpointcrusader like he was barely there and running right back to his career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 95, which he earned in the Remsen Stakes.

SUPER ALLISON
Trainer: Carlos Martin
Last race: Jan. 31, 10th
Finish: 2nd by 1 1/4
Beyer: 64
Super Saver filly added blinkers for her first start in two months. She hesitated and ducked in at the break to get away slowest from the rail, and made up better than a dozen lengths in a maiden special weight sprint for New York-breds.

Grade 2, $350,000 Holy Bull Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Gulfstream Park, Jan. 30, 2016
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)

Winner: Mohaymen (sire: Tapit)
Trainer: Kiaran McLaughlin
Jockey: Junior Alvarado
Owner: Shadwell Stable
Beyer Speed Figure: 95

Grade 3, $250,000 Withers, 1 1/16 miles, Aqueduct, Jan. 30, 2016
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)

Winner: Sunny Ridge (sire: Holy Bull)
Trainer: Jason Servis
Jockey: Manny Franco
Owner: Dennis Drazin
Beyer Speed Figure: 87

SHEZROXIIE, by Scat Daddy
Trainer: Jorge Gutierrez
Last race: Jan. 28, 4th
Finish: 3rd by 1/2
Beyer: 77
A 4-year-old first-time starter, she rallied from eighth in this special-weight turf sprint that was dominated by early speed. This was a solid debut.

SAN ONOFRE, by Surf Cat
Trainer: Karen Headley
Last race: Jan. 30, 6th
Finish: 4th by 5 1/2
Beyer: 84

Saturday, January 30

Aqueduct - Withers (race 4)

COMMENT: Sunny Ridge, second in the Grade 1 Champagne and the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot, showed he’s the real deal. He dogged Vorticity through snail-like splits, and battled with that rival from midway down the backstretch to midstretch before edging away in the final half-furlong. Vorticity, a well-beaten second to Flexibility in the Grade 3 Jerome Jan. 2, got bumped at the start by Adventist but was still nimble enough to move off to a clear lead.

As usual, a series of deep, competitive races – mostly on turf – give the opportunity for a fat payoff in the late pick four at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. Here’s my strategy for it, ranking horses as either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ based on their probability of winning each respective race, and then plugging the horses into DRF’s Ticketmaker program.

Race 8

The first leg, a maiden turf race for inexperienced 3-year-olds, is a scramble. So I will go deep with three A horses and two B’s.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Rain is on the way. Three turf races Sunday at Santa Anita might be moved to the main track, including the Wishing Well Stakes for female sprinters, Race 5.

The wet forecast exacerbates an already bleak card. The only play Sunday is an “action bet” double that combines two low-odds standouts – the favorite in a restricted claiming race that is Race 4, with a dirt-only runner in the Wishing Well that is Race 5.

Race 4

Well, that was easy.  Not only did our upset Pick scratch out of last week’s race, but so did the one with poor form, leaving the obvious odds-on BreezeFigs drop down, Leopardshill Road, to gallop off at 1-to-10.  On that same Gulfstream card, one of our previous Pix, Gimlet, showed he is poised for good things in winning his second start, indicating once again that one should pay attention to our previous Pix because so many of them win their second start.