Impressive – Casino Drive
On the way home today I stopped by my favorite place to in theory finish up the work on my 2009 budget for the office. I should have know better than that, especially given the deep connections of the both patrons and the owner to the horse racing industry and the fact that Keeneland ran today. So there are more than a few people in here talking shop about horses.
There was some amazement at my pick on My Best Pal Red on Friday, who won and paid $19.20 for the $2.00 ticket I have to admit it was random inspiration for me to bet a Florida breed horse over a field of Kentucky breed horses with trainers I like, but I thought of someone when I read the name and immediately thought of a charmed person I know, so I knew I had to bet the horse. I was so confident that I put $4.00 down for the win and will split it with my inspiration. Oh, and you can bet I am not telling the guys (and gals) here how I came up with that one.
Anyway, I am getting off the subject – I really wanted to talk about Casino Drive. We just watched the 8th race at Santa Anita. The race was a mere $50,000 purse. That seems a little week for a horse that is rumored to be pointing to the Breeder’s Cup in less than two weeks. And what the heck, two weeks? Recall the complaints of the grueling schedule during the Triple Crown at three-week intervals? Granted today’s race was probably less that match work for Casino Drive, but it is still odd to think about how much crying took place back in May and June in regard to the rough schedule for Big Brown. Recall that his biggest contender was put down after the first race, and Casino Drive who was pointed to the Belmont as a spoiler, got a bone bruise and was scratched. Interesting enough, Casino Drive has siblings that have won the some number of last so many Belmont Stakes races, running as a spoiler who did run the other two legs of te triple crown.
It should be clear now that Casino Drive was running this race to get some race time on the charts. After all the horse has two wins. Granted it is two wins in two starts, but you still get the point. He has run once in New York and once in Japan and none of the two were on synthetic, which he will face on the Breeder’s Cup. As of Thursday it was still unclear if he was going to be ready to run or not, but they put his entry in for this race anyway on Thursday.
In case if it was not obvious, he went off greatly favored against the field. Clearly he won, impressively. Not from the stand point of distance, but with his ease. As someone who knows, as my idiot horse requires this, I swear the jockey had him checked up coming down the strait away. With about one and half furloughs left – without using the bat (whip) you could see the jockey consciously move to let slack in the reigns and the horse jumped in to the next gear. In a couple of strides he was a couple of lengths ahead of the pack that he had been neck and neck with to that point.
What impressed me even more though was the horses manners. He came in and did the post parade just as calm as any horse can possible do it. Heck, he looked like an old hack trail horse who has been there, seen it all, and did everything while he was there. Now that in itself is calm going into a race – but even more is this horse did not have a lead pony. How freaking unusual is that? In American racing I have never seen it except for the occasional horse trained in Europe (Casino Drive was trained in Japan). Further, if you watch, most jockey on most horses catch toes in the irons and relax with knees up to their chins. The jockey on Casino felt he was calm enough to relax his legs full-out, no irons, no lead pony, and looked like I do when I get tired out on the trails on a horse I trust and ride regularly.
One last thing, the commentators were talking about how he really didn’t even break a sweat like the other horses in the race. So now he is three for three and probably pointed for sure to the Breeder’s Cup. It will be the race of his life if he goes, for sure. He will definitely face Big Brown and likely Curlin will be there as well. My tip – he is a wild card and may not get the bets that the other two will – but I would put $2.00 on him for fun and see how it goes. If you want to go save bet him to show, but I think he could be a winner just based on not being keyed he will be and likely have reserves because of it down the stretch.
