I took a deep dive into the H. Allen Jerkens G1 today. I'll be playing all the races but this one interested me enough as quite frankly I don't spend much time with 3 YO sprinters.
The weather today seems to be dry. You'll find Scratches/Changes and Track Conditions at this NYRA link. By the way, it's pretty weak NYRA that this page is unavailable at 9:45 AM day of the biggest day of the meet. As of 12:30 ET I see no changes to the sixth race announced.
Lets get right to this!
Race 6: The H. Allen Jerkens (King Bishop) G1; 7 Furlongs; Dirt
Amsterdam G3: 6 1/2 F Good Dirt
Dwyer G3: 1 mile Fast Dirt
The race was really contested from the 1/2 mile pole up the stretch; In this picture you'll see just before the 1/2 pole Firenze Fire (118 Late Timeform Pace) starting to move and looking to the outside as the rail is covered. Seven Trumpets is covered in 4th along the rail
With Robbie Albarado upon Seven Trumpets, he made a masterful move pulling away from the rail diagonally in the turn to clear Mendelssohn and continue the charge at Firenze Fire.
Ultimately, Firenze Fire rolled to 9 length win with Seven Trumpets took a well beaten Place
Let's go back to the Woody Stephens G2: 7F Fast Dirt
In this race we had absolutely blistering fractions set mostly by Promises Fulfilled: :21.46 First 1/4 and :22.22 Second Quarter and :24.75 third quarter with a plodding :27.58 adjusted last quarter (13.79 final 1/8).
Just look at the lane Still Having Fun (109 Timeform Pace Late) has to run into against tiring front runners. The modestly bred Maryland bred set his career best Beyer on this day. Engage (4 Places in seven career starts) again has no excuse for lacking a finishing kick. It didn't come out very clearly but that's Givemeaminit 18 lengths back before finishing about 7 back. The Dallas Stewart trained La bred Star Guitar son followed this up with a dog of an Indiana Derby with a bad ride and he gets Leparoux up today.
With one hop to the wire, Engage has conceded to Still Having Fun while Givemeaminit is flying. Promises Fulfilled had nothing left.
Don't completely dismiss Ontario bred Telekinesis. here he runs a pretty steady pace over fake dirt in the Plate Trial, beating the Place horse to Wonder Gadot next time out breaking from 15th post.
Pletcher brings an interesting Gidu (Ire) into this race. First time dirt for the son of Frankel (GB) with J. Velaquez up. He was the heavy chalk here beating Curlin's Honor at 7f over very firm turf at BEL in the Paradise Creek 98K.
Funny Duck has a race third best Slop Tomlinson of 428 and won his only win on dirt in Pat Day Dirt Mile G3 at CD at 39-1.
Analysis by paralysis or good info? I'll leave that to my readers to decide but I find these breakdowns very helpful to me as I'm assigning worth to an individual race effort. These 3 Yo sprint classifications to me are random: What makes this race today a Grade 1 and was the Amsterdam a Grade 3 or the Woody Stephenson a G2? To me, they are all about the same and I refuse to credit much of a difference to winning one over the other.
I can't say I have a very strong opinion and this should be a very good betting race. I like Promises Fulfilled to break very fast and carry speed to win. I would not be surprised if he was gobbled up in the last 1/8 of a mile.
I would not expect Engage to be the gobbler. He's shown a propensity to finish in Place and that's where I'm tucking him in.
Firenze Fire will have to get a great ride breaking from the 8th post but should be flying late.
Gidu (Ire) is a real wild card and you have to respect Pletcher, The Zayat's and JV for placing the colt in this spot. At the odds, worth consideration for Win-Place or Show.
Don't sleep on Telekensesis but I think its a minor prize only, and I could say the same about Seven Trumpets and Still Having Fun, both of these colts have 109 Late Pace Timeforms and should be advancing at the end.
Have fun friends. Turk Out!
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