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| Clement: Photo by Nancy Rokos |
Welcome friends to the Turk and the Little Turk. It's nice to break away from the Triple Crown trail to handicap races where my real passion is, turf running. A route of turf over a beautiful course really stirs the Turk's horse racing imagination. With all due respect to mega trainers like Pletcher, et al, I most admire the turf training maestros like a Johnathan Sheppard, John Gosden or Christophe Clement, pictured left. The term Conditioner seems to have been created for him.
Woodbine's turf course is one of my favorites in North America, just behind Arlington. Woodbine is far ahead of Arlington in generating stakes races and purses. While I'm playing Arlington today, for a beautiful early season Saturday, the card should be much better than it is. How a Saturday card, in what is a short race season at Arlington, cannot contain a single stakes race or have a purse over $25,000, is very concerning to me about the future of that track.
Anyway, that's a subject for someone who knows what they are talking about, a serious journalist or blogger, and not this idiot handicapper.
Let's get it on!
Woodbine Race 8: The Nassau Grade 8, 1 Mile on Turf
| Horse/Post | Turk's Grade | |
| Win | Stellar Path (Fr)/4 | A+ |
| Place | Deceptive Vision/9 | A |
| Show | Resistivity/11 | A-- |
| Exotic | Overheard/3 | B++ |
| Also Ran's | Winning Rhythm/12 | B |
| Sky Treasure/7 | B- | |
| Strut the Course/1 | C++ | |
| Skylander Girl/2 | C | |
| Surtsey/5 | C | |
| Llanarmon/6 | C | |
| Copper Kitten/8 | C | |
| Silent Star/10 | C | |
| Woodbine Race 8: Post Time 4:45 ET | The Nassau G2 | |
| 1 Mile on Turf | For F&M, 3 YOs and Up |
I'm focused on faster handicapping. I'm developing a better technique for when I am at the track and making a spot play, looking at Past Performances for the first time seconds after one race ends and with only enough time to quickly review and get to the windows. I've become to accustomed to sitting at the table in dead silence, with my charts and graphs, and taking tons of time to assemble complex exotic bets. At the track, I toss all that in the garbage for a few spot plays here and there.
I'm typically not a fan of betting any race I haven't put alot of preparation into, but what the heck, I'm letting my hair down (metaphysically speaking that is!)
Stellar Path and Deceptive Vision were the top horses coming out of my cursory review. Stellar Path is a versatile 4 YO, 10 of 14 in the money, 7 of 10 in the money at the distance, and coming in off a less than firm turf win. Deceptive Vision comes in off a win at KEE on the dirt, a switch Pierce wins 50% of the time, albeit on 4 tries. Husbands up.
A group of four horses made it into my exotic pool. I say exotic loosely, as I'm looking at Exacta primarily, maybe Tri, maybe not. Resistivity, a Mark Casse trainee, has been training sharply and looks ready to step up in class. Expect a great price. Overheard, 10 of 11 in the money on turf and 3 of 3 at WO, has been training up since an early April fourth at KEE. Winning Rhythm I think would like more distance, has only 1 win in 6 at this distance, none at WO, and is 0 of 3 in 2015. Sid Attard first time with trainer stats 9% on 22 tries. Sky Treasure I expect will be on ticket anywhere but first. Casse's mare spent the Winter at SA.
Simple Exacta: $2 Bet 4, 9 OVER 4,9 3,7,11,12 for $20
Simple Triactor ($0.20 bet available) $2 Bet 4, 9 OVER 4,9,3,7,11,12 OVER 4,9,3,7,11,12 is $80.
I doubt I care that much so we will try to thin that down to something liker this: $2 Bet 4,9 over 4,9 11,3,12 over 9,11,3,12,7 for $58.
Have fun friends!
Turk Out
