Horses to Watch List (Sep 19-20)

It has been awhile since I’ve posted on here and wanted to get a quick blog post up. Last weeks racing at Golden Gate Fields was as solid as I’ve seen all year, and I wanted to write about 2 horses that I think are eligible to improve in their next starts.

‘Horses to Watch’ highlights horses that should be followed for potential wagering options in the future. Virtual stables or stable mail are good tools to help you follow along.

Tura Lura (September 19th: Race 4)- The 2yo daughter of Idiot Proof must have been showing some talent in the mornings as she was bet all the way down to 2/1 in her career debut on Saturday. She missed the break and that really put her behind the eight ball early. This turf course seemed biased towards speed all week, and it was very difficult to make up a ton of ground in the stretch. She put in a steady bid up the rail to finish 5th under not a ton of urging (mostly hand ridden). The gallop out was what really caught my attention in here, you can see after the wire she galloped out well past everyone. Also, Tura Lura is a 1/2 sister to 2x Turf Route winner Shadrack and multiple Turf Route winner Hal’s Buddy. That debut seemed like a good learning experience for her, and I think she’ll be able to show her fully ability over 2-turns– hopefully that is where we see her next out.

On Ice (September 20th: Race 1) This 3yo gelding made his career debut on Sunday in the opener. In my opinion, this was a strong field for the 8k MCL level– there were some droppers and a few others that have been close to breaking through at this level. On Ice broke very sharp and was up close early, but his rider decided to take back, so he found himself sitting in 2nd to last heading down the backstretch. He tucked in on the turn and when he entered the stretch he still had over 7 lengths to make up and a lot of horses to pass. He encountered a wall of 3 runners in front of him and then dropped to the inside and began to make a run. As he was making his run up the rail, there were 2 horses in front of him on the inside which forced him to shift back out to the 3 path in the final 1/16th. He leveled off very nicely and galloped out past the field. This was a great education for him on debut. While the Josephson barn is a capable 13% with firsters, it does seem like he will only move forward off this effort.