Washington Handicapp 7-30-6- WOW !!

Perfect Drift
Second Of June
Suave
Seek Gold
Real dandy
Nolans Cat

dam......


i passed out for a second there.....


CHICAGO - It could be as few as six for the Washington Park Handicap, or as many as nine, but put a circle around Second of June's name - he's on his way.
Saturday's $300,000 Washington Park, Chicago's most important main-track route race of the season, will be much more a Midwest than a national affair, but the race still has a solid backbone, anchored by Perfect Drift, who won the race last year and in 2003.

Also expected to run are Suave, who beat Second of June by a nose when they met June 16 at Churchill; Three Hour Nap, second last out in the Grade 2 Cornhusker Handicap; Nolan's Cat; and Real Dandy.

The possibles are O'Connell's, Clear the Way, and Seek Gold, a huge upset winner of the Grade 1 Stephen Foster earlier this summer.

Second of June and trainer Bill Cesare were headed to Arlington from Churchill Downs on Tuesday, the horse back on track after returning last month from the second long injury-related layoff of his career.

One of the most promising early-season 3-year-olds of 2003, Second of June fractured a cannon bone after finishing second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes. And after a near-win last spring in the Oaklawn Park Handicap, Second of June was quarantined at Churchill Downs because of an outbreak of equine herpesvirus just as he was supposed to ship to Maryland for the Pimlico Special. A month later, he was out of action again with an ankle problem.

"That's the game, that's the nature of this game," said Cesare, who trains Second of June for his mother, Barbara Cesare, and once played in the NFL. "Things happen in this sport - horses get hurt, football players get hurt."

Up until his injury at 3, Second of June had a steady campaign, putting a string of regularly spaced races together, but his development since then has come in fits and starts, and Cesare would like to keep Second of June on track long enough for the horse to make his mark.

"We feel like he's one of the top horses in the country," Cesare said. "We felt that way when he was a 2-year-old, when he was a 3-year-old, and we felt that way when he was 4-year-old and he ran at Oaklawn."

[miraja2]

I will definitely be there, but I hope Seek Gold and the others show up because a field of six won't be that much fun to cap. I was also hoping that Kid Grindstone was running, because I liked his chance to hit the board at a price.
Oh well. Suave, Second of June, and Perfect Drift huh? This race could be tough. What do you do when the best horse in the field doesn't like to win races? Based on what he did on this track last year however, I think I like Perfect Drift's chances to win this one.

[slotdirt]

Perfect Drift lost this race last year to like Super Frolic or some other nag, IIRC.

[Buffymommy]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Perfect Drift lost this race last year to like Super Frolic or some other nag, IIRC.

Ummmm....

He won this race last year.

Originally Posted by Buffymommy

Ummmm....

He won this race last year.

not only did he win, he set anew course time record doing so.
he lloked exceptionally sharp last year at the end of the summer, scored big in the Pac Classic from this one and was ITM in the BCC, much to my surprise ,

he needs this win and a good showing in the PC to get the points he may need to get to the BCC. at 7, even though he leads the league in on track earnings, he may not get picked as 1 of the 7 by the panel should he fall short on points.

Saturday at AP,
i'm guessing temps in the mid to upper 90's.

i'm so sweet i'm ay not be able to go, you know melting problems and all.

[1st_Saturday_in_May]

Block, dont worry about the Classic...he'll get in. The panel wont leave him out as long as he keeps running the way he did in the Foster...that isnt even a concern

Originally Posted by Secretariat

Saturday at AP,
i'm guessing temps in the mid to upper 90's.
i'm so sweet i'm ay not be able to go, you know melting problems and all.

tooo funny!!!!!

[Pointg5]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Perfect Drift lost this race last year to like Super Frolic or some other nag, IIRC.

Here's what I don't understand about Perfect Drift, everyone says that he loves to run 2nd or 3rd and that he is common, but there were 3 times where I was at the track and saw him run and he showed the winning killer instinct. The first was in March of 2002 in the Spiral Stakes, he ran by a pretty nice Request For Parole to win. The other two times he got the ideal setups, but he still won. In June of 2003 in the Stephen Foster, Mineshaft had a horrendous trip and horrible ride, but he was the best horse that year and Perfect Drift ran him down, the other time was in September of 2003, when Congaree was on the worst part of the track in the Kentucky Cup, but Perfect Drift did win. How did he go from that to running second, maybe it's the trainers fault. I like this horse and next to Cat Thief, I have probably seen him run in person, more than any other top horse and even though he looked good in the Stephen Foster, I think that was a very bad field and made him look better than he really might be, I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose this race...

[1st_Saturday_in_May]

Seek Gold a no show...Drift drew the rail

Arlington Park - July 29th, 2006 - Race 8
Washington Park H. - Grade: 2
Estimated Local Post Time: 4:25 PM
Race Type: Stakes
Breed: Thoroughbred
Age Restriction: Three Year Old and Upward
Purse: $300,000
Distance:One And Three Sixteenth Miles
Surface: Dirt
Post Horse Name Age Sex Weight Jockey Name
1 Perfect Drift (KY) 7 Gelding 119 Mark Guidry
2 Three Hour Nap (KY) 4 Colt 115 Francisco C. Torres
3 Iosilver (MD) 5 Gelding 111 Eduardo E. Perez
4 O'Connell's (BRZ) 5 Gelding 114 Jesse M. Campbell
5 Second of June (FL) 5 Horse 116 Robby Albarado
6 Suave (KY) 5 Horse 118 Calvin H. Borel
7 Nolan's Cat (KY) 4 Colt 113 Christopher A. Emigh

[slotdirt]

What was the race in the slop last year at Arlington that Perfect Drift lost last year to like Super Frolic? I know I"m not making this up.