Gulfstream Park - Donn Handicap Day Recap

Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap G1
There's been a lot of Monday morning jockeying about Joel Rosario's ride on Animal Kingdom.  People are saying that he moved way too soon and if you looked at where he was on the track it would appear that way.  But, to be honest I thought that was his only chance to win the race, esp. after I saw the slow half mile time and the head on replay.  There were to major factors that were working against him:  1) The 1/2 mile time was 50 2/5 seconds, that is a crawling pace, there is no way Animal Kingdom was going to make up the 2-3 lengths on a horse like Point of Entry with that kind of slow pace.  2) When watching the head-on replay you'll see that Salto was close to 4-5 paths wide and Point of Entry was on the outside of him.  There was no way Animal Kingdom was going to beat Point of Entry by going widest by 6 paths.  So Rosario was left with one option and that was to put him in the hole on the rail that was given to him and to get him in the race a little earlier so he would have a chance to out kick Point of Entry.  Look, I'm and huge Animal Kingdom fan, but let's face it, he was even on the turn with Point of Entry and had the lead in the stretch, but he just got out run down the stretch by a really good horse.  In the end, Animal Kingdom is still a really good horse and should benefit from this race. Also, I thought Unbridled Command ran a good race against 2 really good horses.  It will be interesting to watch his next race.


Gulfstream Park Donn Handicap G1
If I would have handicapped this race 100 different times, never would I have thought that a single horse would have found himself alone on the lead.  In my handicapping there were 5 possible speed horses in this field.  Hats off to Graydar for wiring the field!  In my notes I wrote that it was a bold move for Pletcher and I should have picked up on that.  For Pletcher to make such a move one would have to think he had an idea of what was under the hood in Graydar.  Take Charge Indy was in the best position to run down Graydar, but when Graydar got away on the far turn there was no catching him.  Flat Out didn't run a step, which he does from time to time.  This track and race didn't setup well for him.  So if you are a Flat Out fan, don't worry he'll be back.  Bourbon Courage was running hard late and was very game, but he simply had too much to do to catch the winner.

Looking forward to more racing next weekend...