August, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Golden Pal Exits Troy in Good Order

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Before the conversation began rolling, trainer Wesley Ward brought his visitors to Golden Pal (Uncle Mo)'s stall Saturday morning and pointed to the 4-year-old, who was sprawled on his side on the wood chips-covered floor.
Ward chuckled.

“Every day at this time he takes a nap,” Ward said.

Some 10 hours after the two-time Breeders' Cup winner won the GIII Troy S. at Saratoga Race Course, his first start after a rare clunker in the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot in June, Golden Pal looked like a contented dog resting in front of a fireplace. A few minutes later, he was on his feet checking out what was going on in the shedrow.

“Mentally, he's really a highly intelligent horse,” Ward said. “People think you are crazy, that it's just like, 'a horse is a horse.' You see that he's up in the front of the stall. That wasn't the case at Ascot. He was in the back of the stall and when he flew home and was in his own stall in his own home he was in the back of the stall kind of sulking. It took a little while for him to come out.”

Golden Pal didn't need any cheering up after running his record at Saratoga to three-for-three, all in stakes.

“He knows he won,” Ward said.

The 5 1/2-furlong Troy was the first of Golden Pal's seven career victories in 11 starts that he was not leading at every call. Golden Pal did not leave the gate as sharply as he normally does, but the race scenario played out exactly as Ward had hoped. Under Irad Ortiz, Jr. Golden Pal stalked and pounced, edging pacesetter True Valour (Ire) (Kodiac (GB)) by a head.

Ward has been preparing for the Breeders' Cup during training, having his veteran exercise rider Julio Garcia work him behind horses in breezes. Prior to the Troy, Ward took another step.

“I had a conversation with Irad's agent, Steve Rushing,” Ward said. “I said, 'A lot of jockeys get on my horses, and they just go, because they see me, think speed and they go.' And Irad, the reason I started to ride him is that he would break and do like he did yesterday. Lately, he kind of got a little speedy with some of the horses of mine and I told Steve, 'Look, especially with this horse, let's slow down a little bit, because mine are going to be up in the forefront of the race anyways.' I said, not just him but the others, but especially this one.'”

Ward has called Golden Pal the best horse he has trained and said that the colt's speed is his greatest asset.

“If he contain it, that makes him a better horse,” Ward said. “Because if you're strictly go-to-the-front type horse, you're a victim of the pace.”

Golden Pal is scheduled to leave Saratoga Sunday for Ward's base of operations at Keeneland. The tentative plan is to prepare him to leave the turf, where he has found so much success, and run in the GII Phoenix S. on dirt Oct. 8 at Keeneland. It is intended as a showcase for breeders that he is effective on turf and dirt. He will go on to attempt a second-straight win in GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint Nov. 5 at Keeneland, which is expected to be his career finale.

However, if all goes well, Ward said that the Coolmore syndicate that owns the colt might run him in Australia to expose him to breeders in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ward was pleased that Golden Pal showed that he had learned his lessons well in the Troy. Though he is accustomed to seeing Golden Pal leading the way in his races, he said he was always confident that the son of Lady Shipman (Midshipman) would catch the leader.

“I was. It was a nail-biter, but for me, I knew the greatness of this horse,” he said. “Take nothing away from the horse that he beat because he ran a really good race, but I knew when they hit that last little bit of the stretch that the greatness was going to come out of him, and it did.”

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‘This Is Huge’: Skippylongstocking Posts First Stakes Win In West Virginia Derby

The plan for Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking worked to perfection Aug. 6 at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort when the 3-year-old Exaggerator colt who had been competitive in two Triple Crown races broke through with his first stakes victory in the $500,000 West Virginia Derby (G3).

Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., Skippylongstocking in his last start finished a solid third in the Belmont Stakes (G1) June 11 after dueling with eventual fourth-place finisher We the People for about 1 1/4 miles. Joseph freshened the colt a bit before he returned to the work tab at Saratoga Race Course in July.

The goal, Joseph said, was the West Virginia Derby, which from the far turn to the finish turned into a battle between the two colts that did the early work in the 1 ½-mile Belmont.

We the People, a Constitution colt owned by WinStar Farm, Bobby Flay, Siena Farm and CMNWLTH and trained by Rodolphe Brisset, again grabbed the early initiative in West Virginia Derby with Skippylongstocking in second, never worse than 1 ¼ lengths behind. We the People, ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., set an honest pace on a track rated sloppy with three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.50.

Skippylongstocking, ridden by Edwin Gonzalez for the first time, ranged up outside the leader on the far turn and the duel was on. The winner gradually edged clear of a stubborn We the People to win by 1 ¼ lengths in a good 1:48.11. Simplification, who raced in third throughout, finished 4 ¾ lengths behind favored We the People. The winner paid $9.80 as the third choice.

Skippylongstocking, who doubled his career earnings to $672,600, was purchased for $37,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Two-Year-Olds in Training sale. The colt provided Alonso, who has been a Thoroughbred owner since 2015, with his first graded stakes win.

“This is huge,” said Alonso, who was part of a large group in the winner's circle. “It's our first graded stakes win, and we're looking forward and we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll take a shot at the big boys.”

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Slot Machines and RNG

If you are anything like me, as soon as websites start going on about anything that they refer to in abbreviation, for example RNG, I switch off and hope it’s not important. After all, if it was really important, or indeed understandable, they wouldn’t talk about it in code, right? Well, I got a bit of a shock when someone actually explained to me what RNG was – it’s really quite interesting, and useful: listen up!

RNG stands for Random Number Generation and it’s a technology that is used to imitate any other form of creating randomness like a shuffle or a dice throw. So, when a website tells you that they’re RNG is the best, they mean that they’re numbers are the most like a naturally randomly generated result, like me shuffling a deck. RNG, because it’s entirely computer reliant is also very safe as it isn’t susceptible to human corruption such as not being a good shuffler, or not giving a strong spin.

Now, in terms of slots this is really interesting. In the good old days there would be wheels inside the machine that would spin and give us a randomly generated result in the shape of images that lined up. Today however, our slot machines don’t have wheels, of course they don’t; apart from anything else they’re on line! So how do they create the results?

Most of our modern slots are categorized as ‘3 reel’, ‘5 reel’, or ‘7 reel’, but we’ve already said that there aren’t actually any reels, so what is this referring to. The modern slots have instead of physical reels, a sequence of images that may be displayed on virtual wheel. These sequences of images are far more numerous than was ever possible on slots with physical reels because there simply wasn’t enough space. On a video slot for instance, there may be a sequence of let’s say 147 possible positions which correspond to the symbols that appear on your screen. A computer using the RNG technology will spit out combination after combination of numbers. Each of these numbers will tell the virtual reel to go to the corresponding position on the virtual reel sequence. So, for example, on a 3 reel slot there will be 3 sets of sequences; each sequence will consist of 147 positions which in turn will be represented by a symbol on your screen. The RNG will spit out numbers, maybe 45, 98, and 138. The computer then knows to send the first reel to position 45 in its sequence, the second to 98 in its sequence, and the third to 138 in its sequence. This then gets represented on your screen with the spinning of a reel.

So now you now you know what RNG is and how they managed to fit all of those cherries into such a small space!

Awesome Strong, Lynx Take Opening Divisions Of Florida Sire Stakes Series

Awesome Strong paid immediate dividends for CSLR Ranch Partners Saturday at Gulfstream Park, capturing the $100,000 Dr. Fager in his first start since being privately purchased for $500,000.

The six-furlong Dr. Fager co-headlined Saturday's program with the $100,000 Desert Vixen, a six-furlong stakes for fillies, which was won by Lynx, while kicking off the 2022 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds sired by accredited stallions standing in Florida.

Awesome Strong, who was sold after capturing his May 9 debut by six lengths while running 4 ½ furlongs in :51.62, was in complete control from the very start of the Dr. Fager, setting an uncontested pace and drawing away to a commanding 4 ¾-length victory.

“I'm pleased he fulfilled my expectations,” trainer Jorge Delgado said. “When you have a long layoff, you have a lot of doubts in your mind, but thank God he brought his 'A' Game. I'm happy with the outcome.”

Delgado, who saddled the son of Awesome Slew for his debut score, was retained by the new owners following the sale and prepared Awesome Strong for the Dr. Fager while trying not to focus on the high price tag.

“I try to put that away from my mind and not have that pressure,” Delgado said. “I know it was big money. I'm trying to build my stable, and $500,000 is good money for any horse, I'm happy for them. They're new in the game. They want to invest in the game. They're off to a good start.”

CSLR Ranch Partners is headed by Bill Childs and his son Alex Childs.

“My dad and I got a couple quarter horses and a Thoroughbred, but this horse is kind of a different animal than we usual have,” Alex Childs said. “There's about 10, 12 people in the group.”

Awesome Strong, the 5-2 second choice who returned $7.40, ran six furlongs in 1:11 under Miguel Vasquez after setting fractions of :22:05 and :45.13 for the first half-mile.

“He broke very well. The plan wasn't to go to the front,” Vasquez said. “The plan was to stalk the pace, but he took the lead immediately.”

Turbo, who chased the pacesetter while saving ground under Edgard Zayas, finished second, three-quarters of a length ahead of late-rallying Cajun Hope. This Run's for You, the 2-1 favorite, tired to fifth after stalking the early pace.

The Florida Sire Stakes series will continue on September 3 with the $200,000 Affirmed at seven furlongs and on October 1 with the $400,000 In Reality at 1 1/16 miles.

“From the beginning, we've felt like he's going to be a long-distance horse,” Delgado said of the colt, who is out of the Pleasant Tap mare Pleasant Ring.

Lynx lagged behind a contested pace during the early going of Saturday's $100,000 Desert Vixen before pouncing on her tiring rivals in the stretch to prevail by 1 ¼ lengths in the first leg of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes series at Gulfstream Park.

Lynx is an Arindel homebred daughter of Brethren. She covered the six furlongs in 1:12.53 and returned $8.40.

“First of all, I'm really grateful to have Arindel on my side. They've been great. I think [Brethren] is one of the top Florida-bred stallions right now. I got a hang of training them,” said winning trainer Carlos David, who saddled Arindel's Octane to victories in the $200,000 Affirmed and $400,000 In Reality during the 2021 Florida Sire Stakes series.

Lynx, who overcame traffic to capture her May 19 debut by 1 ¾ lengths, raced in sixth along the backstretch and around the far turn, taking kickback from the heated competition in front of her. Go Lil Lady raced head-to-head with Girl Bye while vying for pacesetting honors with Gemma's Curls in close pursuit.

Gemma's Curls made a three-wide sweep under Luca Panici to take the lead turning for home and open a clear lead in mid-stretch, only to shorten stride in deep stretch. Meanwhile, Lynx kicked in with an outside drive under Edgard Zayas to pass the tiring leader and win going away.

“I think it worked out the way we wanted,” Zayas said. “Before the race, Carlos told me, 'There is plenty of speed. Don't rush out of there. Let the speed kill each other and when you're ready to make a move, go to the outside and make one move.' That's what we did. She was there for us.”

Gemma's Curls, a daughter of Bucchero, held second, 2 ¾ lengths ahead of late-running Trust Me, a daughter of Big Beast who finished second behind Lynx in her debut before graduating impressively June 17. Lynx ran six furlongs in 1:12.53 after racing far back during the first half-mile run in :45.93.

“I didn't want her to be that far back,” David said. “When she broke out of the gate she got in a little trouble and it cost us a little, a couple lengths, but she finished up so good. I'm really excited about the next couple races.

“I got to give it to Zayas. He came to Palm Meadows to breeze her to get to know her a little bit because Paco [Lopez] rode her the first time.”

The Florida Sire Stakes series for fillies will continue on September 3 with the $200,000 Susan's Girl at seven furlongs and on October 1 with the $400,000 My Dear Girl at 1 1/16 miles.

“I think she's going to love seven furlongs. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I look forward to that,” Zayas said of Lynx, who is out of the Red Bullet mare Darby Rose. “She was getting all the kickback and she didn't mind it at all. She was very professional on that end. That's why I think she'll love the seven furlongs. She won't be as far back. She'll be closer before she makes her move.”

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