Creative Cause is our new Best Pal

We all know that Bob Baffert is a great trainer, and has a marvelous stable of 2YO’s. Even though, I believed Brigand would continue to show us another Baffert winner, I was happy for Mike Harrington to bring us a great looking horse in Creative Cause. He is everything his first race showed, and Bejarano set him up perfectly. Well done to the connections and we can expect great things from this 2YO going forward. (The race replay is below). Race analysis at HANA

In looking at the rest of the field, my choice, I’ll Have Another went off at a nice price of 6-1 and raced well. Took the lead and really didn’t relent to the better horse till near the end. I expect we will see big things of him too. The big surprise was Mighty Monsoon (Bombs Away choice). He got off to a terrible start, lagged the field and down the stretch kicked into gear. Not sure if a better start would have helped him in catching Creative Cause, but he was flying at the end. Look for him to show up in routes and grass events.

Brigand and Galex were disappointments. Both pressed early and seemed to vanish on the turn for home and Night Tide showed nothing. I mentioned in the analysis a concern about Night Tide grittiness and he showed again no fire. Not sure how I see him going forward. I do expect to see Brigand come back and do well, thinking this might have been a race regression from last out effort. He’ll be back.

Enjoy the race replay and see you later in the week.

BC ignores Belmont and NJ cuts Monmouth/Meadowlands dates

I normally don't use this blog for the political mess that horse racing gets drawn into. I leave that to the good people at HANA and others that are far more in the know than me.

In that vain, I have linked two articles for your reading. One by Steve Crist regarding the BC decision to by pass Belmont. The next one is the new law signed by the NJ Governor reducing the racing dates at Monmouth Park and Meadowlands for next season. He also took away the casino subsidy for both tracks but is still against having slots at thetracks. Reads like the casino operators have Christie in their pockets. Racing Law

Look forward to your comments and will be posting the analysis for tomorrows Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar later today at the HANA blog site.