The 4yo filly Left Alone made her fist start in North America after she went winless in her 6 prior starts in England. She had 2 2nds and all her prior races were at sprint distances. She did not show too much speed in her previous starts and today’s MSW field looked loaded with speed. However, she broke good and was sent out to the front by Abel Cedillo. She set a solid pace and was able to hold on after shaking free in the stretch. The most impressive thing about this performance was that the other speed that went with her (horses sitting 2nd and 3rd early) finished in 5th and 6th in the field of 7. She was bet down to 4/1 off of a 10/1 morning line, and she was sporting a bullet ‘best of 41’ workout heading into this one (5f in 1:00.40). The daughter of Reckless Abandon is now 1 for 7 lifetime, and has shown she can handle both the tapeta and turf– there should be plenty of spots for her going forward. Trainer Manuel Badilla has had quite a few European imports recently, and has seemed to have a bit of success with them– when he gets a private purchase in the barn from Europe, they can usually run. Scattering Mink was able to rally on strongly for 2nd, and Starza was able to claim 3rd. The final time for this 6f race was 1:10.58.
It was great to see Cartoonist get back-to-back wins in the 5th race. He had really been struggling to find his form, but a drop in class to this 16k level has seemed to do him wonders. Trainer Michael Lenzini has him going good right now and it will be interesting to see if he can continue to build off of these wins. He won gate-to-wire by 1 3/4 lengths today, and he ran the 5.5f in 1:03.90.
Speed played very strongly today, and it is definitely something to note for your handicapping when these horses run back.
Jockeys: Abel Cedillo and Catalino Martinez both had riding doubles on today’s 7-race card.
- Cedillo *71* 2. Hernandez *52* 3. Martinez *36*
Trainers: William Delia had a double on the day. He scored in the opener with Bitte and the nightcap with Beer Slinger.
- Wong *50* T-2. More, Hollendorfer *16*
Live racing resumes tomorrow with a 9-race card. First post is at 12:45pm. Meal Ticket, who was last seen running a good 4th in the G2 John C Mabee stakes, returns off the layoff in race 4.
Full results/charts from today’s card http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/GG031419USA.pdf
NorCal Horse Racing News 