Gulfstream Park's Wide Open Spectacular Bid Stakes May See Price Repeat

The $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at Gulfstream Park has never produced a Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands winner but Groovy still ranks third on the list of all-time fastest quarter and half-mile fractions in the Run for the Roses. After winning the inaugural Spectacular Bid Stakes in 1986, the Texas-bred Groovy lead for just about six furlongs before faltering and finishing last in that Derby.

The last Spectacular Bid Stakes starter to make it to Kentucky was Discreetly Mine, a fourth-place finisher behind A Little Warm in the Spectacular Bid two years ago and 13th in the subsequent Kentucky Derby.

So don’t look for the winter future book favorite to come out of Saturday’s featured Spectacular Bid Stakes for opening day at Gulfstream Park. The Specatular Bid, named for the 1979 Kentucky Derby (photo right) winner and 1980 Horse of the Year, the Spectacular Bid has traditionally been the first 3-year-old stake of the prestigious Gulfstream Park meeting. This year, the seven furlong Spectacular Bid will be run for 2-year-olds for the first time due to the early opening day for Gulfstream Park. At first glance, no Kentucky Derby winner jumps out of the Daily Racing Form, but it appears there are some colts with potential.

Morning line favorite Luke of York makes his first start on dirt after narrowly winning his first two races on Polytrack. The humbly-bred son of Put It Back broke his maiden by a nose at Arlington Park in late September then came back to win the $125,000 Keeneland 75th Anniversary Stakes Oct. 15, again by a nose. Rajiv Marach rides Luke of York for trainer James P DiVito and is 5-to-2 in the morning line.

Vexor, the second choice among the field of eight at 3-to-1 morning line odds, backs down in class after finishing ninth behind Secret Circle in the $454,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs. Vexor is the only Bid runner with graded stakes experience adding a grade 2 victory in the Nashua Stakes at Belmont October 2 to his past performances. Also of budgetary friendly bloodlines as a son of Wildcat Heir, Vexor was eighth in the grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, some 42 lengths behind winner Currency Swap. A close look at the John Kimmel trainee before the race may indicate which Vexor will be breaking from the starting gate in Saturday’s Spectacular Bid. He runs as if he has handicapped the race running well against grade 1 or less, but flopping when in the grade 1 Hopeful or on the national stage of the Juvey Sprint.

Town Prize, 8-1 in the morning line, and Ancient Rome, (4-1), have a little more blue running in their blood being by Speightstown and Roman Ruler respectively. Ancient Rome moves out of maiden company for the first time in the Spectacular Bid after winning his second start by more than seven lengths. Town Prize has won two of three races including a maiden and an allowance, but finished third in the $150,000 Colin Stakes at Woodbine in July. Town Prize is another making his natural dirt debut after all of his previous starts were on Polytrack.

Town Prize, Ancient Rome and Vexor are the only three starters to have a wire-to-wire victory under their belts and should provide an honest pace. Vexor will have a slight advantage, breaking from post three while Ancient Rome is number seven and Town Prize eight. Most of the other Spectacular Bid entrants are true stalkers with a fondness to run within two-to-four lengths off the leaders early. Longshot Rex’s Last Tour is the only Bid foe with a win coming from as far back as five lengths. Number one Jordon’s Image (8-to-1 morning line), rallied from ten lengths back four starts back, but only managed a third and it was against maiden claimers.

For Oby may be the choice for some as he is the only starter to have won at seven furlongs, having done so in his last out in the J. Price Juvenile over fellow Spectacular Bid runner Jordon’s Image. At 6-to-1, For Oby is at an attractive price and gets Alan Gacia in the saddle for trainer Pedro Maestre.

Selections
7 - Ancient Rome
2- Rex's Last Tour
3 - Vexor

My Jon White Horse of the Year Rankings

While perusing through the Paulick Report yesterday, I happened upon Bill Christine’s Horse Race Insider blog entitled A Poll For What Ails You. In the blog, Christine wrote about another blog posted by Jon White on XpressBet.com ranking every Horse of the Year since the Eclipse Awards were established in 1971. White then asked 31 other turf writers to do the same and came up with a concensus. That consensus is in Christine’s blog, but don’t look yet.

Christine provided all 33 horses in alphabetical order that have been honored with the golden Eclipse Award statuette. Some of them have won the title more than once.

What a great exercise, I thought. Just the kind of task that one looks for when freezing rain, ice and snow are dominating the news here in Arlington, Texas, despite the fact we’re hosting a pretty big football game here Sunday. That game has been preceded by multiple events and parties located throughout the massive metroplex in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV. Needless-to-say, most of those events and parties do not fall within my financial nor my emotional budget, but those that might, have fallen down on the need-to-do list as a consequence of the local weather.

And just as Christine wrote in his blog, “But in the spirit of the thing, why not do your own rankings, then compare them with the rest of us? No peeking at the consensus, though. I'll list the 33 horses (some of them were champions more than once) in the next paragraph, then stop reading for a time and go do your assignment: Rank them from 1 through 33, in order of greatness. A deal? OK, here's goes:

Ack Ack, Affirmed, All Along, Alysheba, A.P. Indy, Azeri, Black Tie Affair, Charismatic, Cigar, Conquistador Cielo, Criminal Type, Curlin, Favorite Trick, Ferdinand, Forego, Ghostzapper, Holy Bull, Invasor, John Henry, Kotashaan, Lady's Secret, Mineshaft, Point Given, Rachel Alexandra, Saint Liam, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Skip Away, Spectacular Bid, Spend a Buck, Sunday Silence, Tiznow, Zenyatta.”

Use any criteria you like. I did not cloud my judgement by looking up specific past performances or any other research. I went by memory and instinct alone. But that doesn’t mean you have restrict yourself from looking up races and information. Heck, that might be half the fun for you.

Hope you enjoy a little winter puzzle and let me know your rankings. My rankings are below. Don’t peak until you're finished with your list though…


Consenus Poll, Christine Rankings, White Rankings


Jon White XpressBet.com blog


The Brock Talk HOY rankings.
1. Secretariat
2. Seattle Slew
3. Forego
4. Affirmed
5. Cigar
6. John Henry
7. Spectacular Bid
8. Zenyatta
9. Ack Ack
10. Tiznow
11. Curlin
12. Lady’s Secret
13. Skip Away
14. Azeri
15. Rachel Alexandra
16. Ferdinand
17. Alysheba
18. Sunday Silence
19. A.P. Indy
20. Point Given
21. All Along
22. Kotashan
23. Holy Bull
24. Ghostzapper
25. Invasor
26. St. Liam
27. Mineshaft
27. Charasmatic
29. Conquistado Cielo
30. Black Tie Affair
31. Criminal Type
32. Spend A Buck
33. Favorite Trick

I matched the consensus with #1 Secretariat, #4 Affirmed, #6 John Henry, #27 Mineshaft and number #33 Favorite Trick. The horses on which I differed the most with the consensus were, ironically, among my favorite horses, Alysheba, who I hand ranked #17 while he was #10 on the consensus; and Sunday Silence. I had Sunday Silence ranked #18 and he was also a top ten among the consensus pollsters at #8.

I ranked both Lady's Secret and Azeri much higher than the consensus poll, missing on them by eight and nine slots respectively. Although, two more recent female stars in Zenyatta (my rank #8, consensus #9) and Rachel Alexandra (my rank #15, consensus #19) I ranked a little low, but not far from the consensus.

Horses on which I missed the consensus by just one slot were Seattle Slew, Tiznow, Curlin, Skip Away,