8/15 (SAR): Sword Dancer Invitational S. (G1)
 

10th (5:47) Sword Dancer Invitational S. (G1)

1 1/2 Miles (Inner turf) | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Stakes | Purse: $500,000

1 Grand Couturier (GB) Garcia Alan 120 L
2 Gentleman Chester Leparoux J R 116 L
3 Lauro (GER) Chavez J F 118 L
4 Better Talk Now Dominguez R A 116 L
5 Rising Moon Desormeaux K J 116 L
6 Americain Velazquez J R 118 FTL
7 Telling Castellano J J 116 L
8 Quijano (GER) Starke A 123
9 Brass Hat Borel C H 116 L
10 Musketier (GER) Jones J 116 L

I must say watching Garcia day in and day out, he is right now the best grass jockey in the country. Not even close.

Couldnt agree more. His ride on Tahoe Warrior today was phenominal. Any other rider, and I chalk it up as a loss when he was dropping back and losing ground to the stalkers. Saved enough gas in the tank to re-rally for the win.

If people have an ROI on Garcia on the turf at the SPA meet I would say it would be in the 10 to 14 range.

Garcia has gotten very, very good on the grass but Leparoux came back in the 9th with a pretty flawless ride of his own.

NT

At a minimum, Dominguez and Maragh are in the conversation (and as much as I hate to say it, Desormeaux, too), and they may be even better.

just starting to notice that Maragh might be the best if you have the horse with the most kick

There is no way to name a best... Ramon, Kent, Maragh, Julian and Garcia are all very very good. This is a great colony.

No Robby Albarado?!? and just think if your man Stew Elliot was there.

:rolleyes:

looks like Pletch has a BC Marathoner hopeful in Americain.

Dollars? That would be just about impossible.

He's now 36-9-2-3 on grass this meet - with a $3.32 ROI.

Thank you. 9 for 36 on the grass is awesome considering how full the fields are at Toga. I guess he's hit with lower priced horses than I thought. Still a terrific ROI.

Probably a better ROI is Linda Rice for Turf Sprints at SAR

Ive really been watching Garcia closely on the turf this meet.
He almost always saves as much ground as possible. Then at the top of the stretch he get his horse in a position offf of the rail where he has options- Rail run, split horses, angle outside.

Garcia is really good, but Ramon always seems to be in the right spot.

Grand Couturier and Rising Moon

I agree..as was the case last weekend with Gio Ponti. Sure, he had the best horse, but it was a perfectly timed move. I had to watch the replay to how he even got the lead, because it seemed to happen in an instant.

That would be 2 more grass wins today and he didn't even have a mount in the feature. Garcia is nasty.

The 'got the jump on them' style of trip handicapping firmly on display. :rolleyes:

A poorly judged move by Ramon (though to that point, he sat a perfect inside drafting trip). Of course, he's probably not familiar with that long stretch run at AP.

Why is Brass Hat not running on dirt? Sheesh.