MTR continues to enjoy success in these juvy turf sprints, especially with his fillies. At Monmouth today, a filly named Koala Princess, out of a Lonhro mare, won her debut by 8, not easy to do at such a short distance. Hopefully, he’ll have a chance to expand his impressive success as a sire of BC champions!

More trainers are pointing their fillies to turf and there might be less

off the turf races this year, our filly turf list is twice as big as dirt races.

MTR and Elusive Quality are 2 Sires in the BMSire window of time and both

didn't get high class mares when they started, IMO I think both will be better

BMSIRES than Sires and one could say their early mates might produce better

than first imaginable with the time given to learn more about both.

In fact If it was up to me I would mate up to those 2 sires every day.

Pletcher has an even better one in My Prankster, won easily, this one I bet, as he outworked stable mate who won earlier......again, Asmussen's colt bet down, went to lead, and had nothing in stretch.  I think Pletcher is much better having a 1st timer ready than Asmussen

Saez was on both.....assuming that Pletcher is well-advised to be looking at the books for a couple of two turn races to try them in 4-5 weeks, if they come back well and continue to train.  Here again is the place for Game Theory Optimal we talked about for poker......perhaps send one to CD, the other to Keeneland? 

1st at Del Mar brought two colts for watching......D'amato's Ain't Easy was masterfully ridden by Joel and won easily, but Mandella's Infinite Empire ran on strong for 2nd after going quite wide under Prat

Mandella has another nice one called Forbidden Kingdom....won a tough one vs. 2 highly regarded Baffert colts, but got a good price at 4-1.  Fast time, showed determination.....I think Mandella will be showcasing a few this fall!

Was the best horse I saw run today...till the last at Saratoga...wow

Best horse I saw today wasn't a 2 year old, it was a $50 winner that Shirreffs had in the Stakes race.  Astronaut.

Its was mind boggling that nobody bet on the horse, who has run ITM 1st or 2nd in 9 races......but what's more is the stakes race was at 1-3/8 miles and it was a Quality Road with Acatenengo BMS,  I mean, THE GERMAN LEGEND.....We are talking 3x HOY and 4 years Champion Sire who won everything under the sun at 2400m

So True Nicks gives Astronaut an A++ rating and nobody bets on him despite his great race record.   

I was happy for Shirreffs. 

What was even better, a longshot ran 2nd so the $2 exacta paid over $900.......another homebred by Mastercraftsman out of a South American dam (CHI) bred by Haras Don Alberto (I always pay attention to his horses and breeding---esp. since he was the very first owner of a Frankel colt , and after he bought Vinery and started purchasing mares to breed to Frankel........those mares produced the first 10 Frankels in the Southern Hemisphere).   Many were not aware of him til he burst onto the US scene but they've been breeding in Chile for a long time.........he leased some pretty remarkable stallions like Mastercraftmen, Dylan Thomas(IRE), Proud Citizen, Rock of Gilbraltor, Bluegrass Cat, Fusahichi Pegasus, Henrythenavigator, etc. to breed with them)  Guy knows what he's doing ---- He's got well over 100 broodmares  at this point.    (He's got Dacita and Salty, too.) 

Some people like Shirreffs and McCarthy are obviously starting to "get it" with the breeding, training for owners who are going to South America and Germany for "drug free" breeding stock.   

I know a couple of owners and trainers are going in that direction,  and I have those listed in my virtual stable.  Holding on to these homebreds who have stamina and haven't been shot up with PEDs in their genetics.  

Some of the U.S. "win early and retire at 3" breeders:  "Take note"   LOL 

While the winner ran a great race, there were quite a few horses in the race that didn't get to do their best running. My pick, Say The Word(no surprise there), never got a chance to run until the contest was decided. The jock seemed to be loaded, but his decision to save ground, always a double edged sword, had him up on heel throughout the stretch. He should get one more shot at a BC prep. I hope he gets a chance to fire his best shot.