To start: last year my betting sidekick, known from here as JG, and I got the itch and travelled to Long Island for both the Gotham Stakes (the first week in March) and the Wood Memorial (the first week in April).
It's one week till this year's running of the Gotham, which is advertised as a Grade 3 stakes for 3-year-olds, with a $400,000 purse. Good check if you can get it. Last year, Hanson, supposedly not named after the singing group, though I had JG believing it to be true, won before a ninth place finish at the Derby.
Let me start with next week's prep with this: today the weather forecast looks the best it has all week -- 46 and cloudy. It's been as low as 40 and with some precip in some predictions. It's not an overly warm forecast.
The race isn't looking that "hot" either, with the early call on entries making Overanalyze the highest rated horse on the chart. The colt out Dixie Union, won the Remsen, and Horse Racing Nation has as an 8.03. The next rated likely starter is Elnaewi, sired by Street Sense, at 6.07. Let's hope a couple of the "possibles" on the list, like Vyjack (the recent Jerome winner) get into the field.
No, for those of you scoring at home, it might not be the Derby prep that today's Fountain of Youth @ Gulfstream is -- with Violence, He's Had Enough, Speak Logistics, Sr. Quisqueyano, Joshua's Comprise, Orb, Majestic Hussar, and Sky Captain, it boasts that many horses with a higher HRN score than Vyjack.
But we aren't in Florida. We are in the mid-Atlantic and the Gotham is the race this month if you are following the Derby trail.
As any good tracker-goer knows, it's not just about the day's big stakes race. At the Big A (as Aqueduct seems to be known, or I'll make it up here), the Saturday 10-race card includes the wonderful exotic bet of the Pick 6 and the even more intriguing, if less lucrative, Grand Slam (starting in race 6). There are also 50 cent pick 3's and 4's along the way.
As we all know, a Pick 6 on a day like Gotham day at the Big A is worth some dough (as is the superfecta in a race like the Gotham). So JG and I will be trying to find a way to win that cash -- as will some tens of thousands of others. Which race and horse do you use as anchors? How deep do you go in a race, say the Gotham (#9 on the card, usually)? Is Overanalyze good enough to anchor your card and then work the other 5?
Great questions. Of course, if Overanalyze is the key -- and we won't know till we see the full card on say Thursday -- you know it lowers the payoff. It takes no genius to pick the highest rated horse in a stakes field. If it's a long shot, like the local running Clawback, who's won twice in a row at the Big A at 6 furlongs, then the pool gets to be even more worth desiring.
Look for blogs this week working through both the Gotham picks (hey, why not take a crack at the Superfecta?) and the Pick 6 and Grand Slams for day.
And good luck bettin' the Fountain of Youth. It's time to start smellin' the roses.
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