Tiago returns to the races - a weekend racing preview
There isn’t a sport I love more than horse racing. As we get closer to the Triple Crown and the race for one of the 20 starting spots heats up we’ll spend more time looking at the sport of kings. I want to take a few minutes now, though, to look at some intriguing races this weekend. We’re in the early days of the year, and high profile drama is hard to find, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good stuff going on.
Six year old Einstein is making his season debut in an allowance on Friday. This is an immensely talented horse who I have always liked. The last time I saw him was in the Dixie Stakes at Pimlico on Preakness day, and I was pretty sure he had died. He was in a truly awful wreck, but he managed to get up with little damage. This is his first start since then, and I will be very interested to see if he still has what it takes.
There are three good stakes races on Saturday at Santa Anita. If, that is, they can manage to make their new Cushion Track functional. They had to cancel racing last weekend after rain caused a world of troubles for the fake track. Don’t even get me started on what I think about stupid synthetic surfaces.
The most interesting is the return of Tiago (pictured) in the San Fernando. He disappointed the many who picked him as an upstart contender in the Breeders’ Cup when he finished fifth. This is his first race back, but he showed in the fall he likes Santa Anita’s synthetic surface, so he could be in a good spot. He faces a field of 12 that includes some interesting horses. Johnny Eves won his graded stakes debut the day after Christmas in the Malibu and is back for more. Ravel was one of the top three year olds in the country at this time last year before an injury made him disappear for seven months. Great Hunter is a horse I never thought I would see again. His last start was the Kentucky Derby.
The San Pasqual Handicap was canceled last weekend, and Arson Squad has joined the field in the re-do. He looked like he was going to be one of the top older horses around last year in the first couple months, but then he fell off the face of the earth. I am very interested to see what he can do against six horses that are talented but far from unbeatable.
Finally, the first Derby prep of the year in California is the San Rafael. The race last year turned out to be irrelevant. Great Hunter’s stablemate Notional won, but faded on the trail, and no other horse in the field made any real noise. This year’s version would have been much better if the track wasn’t such a mess. Potential freak Maimonides was pulled out of consideration for the race because of surface concerns. That leaves Massive Drama as the only real proven contender, and El Gato Malo and Overbid as two horses that might have some talent but will have to step up. I hope to be proven wrong, but I don’t see this race as relevant this year, either.
UPDATE: Something I forgot to mention when I wrote this - undefeated Indian Blessing, the Breeders Cup Juvenile winner who is a lock for the Eclipse award, makes her three year old debut on Sunday in the Santa Ynez at Santa Anita. Here’s hoping she lives up to her scary potential.
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