About two hours before post-time, the sky’s over Colonial Downs opened up and dropped buckets of rain on the site of Saturday’s grade 3 Colonial Turf Cup.
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised the race was allowed to go forward.
When the gates opened, they did so in a driving rain storm. Even the caller made mention of the weather as the horses rounded the far turn and a lightning bolt speared down from the clouds on the near horizon.
I’m not sure what part the weather played or how it impacted the outcome, but it’s foolish to believe the weather didn’t have some role in the finishing order.
As such, I feel a week’s worth of handicapping went out the window as the ran came down Saturday, and I can only ponder what might have been had the weather held steady for another couple hours.
Looking ahead, I would be careful to not to use the Colonial Turf as a barometer for any future handicapping, as the weather was simply too utterly terrible to accurately take anything much from the race.
Unfortunately, my bottom-line was impacted regardless of the weather.
(5/1/2008): $500.00
Kentucky Oaks: -$90.00
Kentucky Derby: -$104.00
Preakness Stakes: +$180.00
Belmont Stakes: +$93.00
Stephen Foster H.: -$2.00
Colonial Turf: -$72.00
Net Profit: +$5.00
Remaining Purse: $505.00
June 23, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Did you hear about this? There’s a photo of a lose shoe on Big Brown at the Derby: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/news/story?id=3456907
Perhaps more importantly, IEAH has announced that its stable will be steroid free by the end of the year; apparently that had been planned before the Belmont.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/news/story?id=3456818
June 29, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I’m surprised you didn’t post anything about the Hollywood Gold Cup. You don’t like handicapping for the cushion track do you?
Anyways, I hope this Colonial Turf Cup hasn’t discouraged you from sharing your picks. The Mast Track upset this weekend made me realize the wisdom in the title of your blog.
June 30, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Not discouraged at all. Just took a short break.
But you’re right though, I don’t like synthetics much at all. Although, Hollywood seems to play more fair than the other tracks that have tried polytrack or cushion or some other kind of fake dirt.
I was thinking the exact same thing about speed winning this past week. Some nice prices on some lone speed.