Explore Today's Featured Race: The Grade 1 Acorn Stakes

SportsGrid

Watch Explore Today's Featured Race: The Grade 1 Acorn Stakes - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00the Friday race of the day. There's always one race of the day every day that you can get free

00:05past performances, free information on the website at drf.com. This is that race of the day.

00:11And these are the really nice three-year-old fillies, Alexa. So for the Kentucky Derby,

00:16the boys run in that race. For the Kentucky Oaks, it's the fillies, the three-year-old fillies that

00:20run in that race. So these are some of those same three-year-old fillies running in this race

00:25right here, the acorn. Let's meet the field, starting things out with Scottish Lassie.

00:30She's a tough read for me because she has one really, really good race out of her four.

00:37You can make an excuse for one or two of the others, but it's just that one race that we're

00:41kind of playing her off of that was really, really good. So you ask yourself, like, which filly is

00:46going to show up? Is it going to be the one that had that awesome effort when she wins the frisette,

00:51or is it going to be the others when she was fourth in the Breeders' Cup? She finished an okay

00:56third most recently in this race that we're watching, and this was her first start of the

01:01year. Which Scottish Lassie are we going to get, Alexa? I don't know. I've included her in my picks,

01:06but not to win because it's tough. But I like her odds, right, at 12 to 1. I mean, if the morning

01:12line was 6 or 8 to 1, I'd be like, yeah, maybe not. Because like you're saying, only one of her races

01:17is really fast enough to compete here today, and it's not her most recent. But she's been

01:22out once. It was after a long layoff. She's tired, so maybe she's raced more into shape

01:26and ready for today. If she runs her best, she totally can be at play, but she's never

01:32run this far before either.

01:33Good cheer is 7 for 7. She is perfect. She's done absolutely nothing wrong. She's proven on

01:41wet and sloppy tracks, too. So if it starts to rain for whatever reason, like a lot of the

01:46things that you're looking at to try to poke holes in her, she actually has already showed us that

01:51those aren't real issues for her. And she probably should get a good setup in here, too. Even with

01:56Shred the Gnar scratching, Scottish Lassie, LaCara, and Look Forward are all pretty quick. They'll all

02:03probably be close to the lead, and it should set up pretty well for a good cheer.

02:07Yeah, I mean, good cheer. I mean, you see her odds are 1 to 2. She's incredible. You know,

02:15this is her first time out of the South, but I mean, she's never really had to use everything

02:19she's had in the tank either. Like, she's won by such huge margins in all of her races.

02:24I think unless she has a bad day, this is her race. I thought the horse with possibly the best

02:31chance would have been Shred the Gnar, but now we hear she's scratched, so I think that just

02:35benefits her even more. I think she's a standout.

02:38LaCara is the number 3. I think she will be better in this race in a smaller field without

02:45as many horses all trying to push her on the front end. She still should have some company

02:50up front, but a little bit less company than she had to face in the Kentucky Oaks. And her

02:54trainer has said she really wants to be on the lead. That's where she does her best running,

02:58so I think she'll be one of those horses that's up fast early. You can see the projector has her

03:03right on the front. She's actually won a race at Saratoga before as well, so a lot of positives

03:08for her. I just don't know if the race shapes up as well with a couple of those other early speed

03:14horses. Well, the race shape, and then I think she prefers a shorter distance. I think she wants

03:19at a mile or just over it, so I think this is going to be a little bit longer for her, so I have put

03:27her as my fourth selection, but I don't think it's shaping up perfectly. Shred the Gnar, the number

03:34four, would have been a real contender in here, but we got the news this morning that she is going

03:38to be scratched, so she's out of this one. That means we can move along to the five, bless the

03:43broken. I like this horse in here. I think she's going to run well. Will it be good enough to beat

03:48good cheer? We'll see. What I do like about bless the broken, she's faced good cheer twice so far,

03:54and between the two times she's faced her, she showed a pretty good amount of improvement

03:58getting closer to her and being a little bit more competitive, and if this race shapes up where

04:05the one, the three, and the six are all flashing speed, I think that means it's setting up really

04:12well for horses like good cheer, but that means it would also set up pretty well for a horse like

04:16bless the broken, and when I kind of go through the rest of the field, Alexa, and eliminate them,

04:21the one that I'm left with is bless the broken, who's really improving, and I think she'll get

04:26the setup just like good cheer, so I'm looking at this race thinking bless the broken will be a

04:31much better price. I think her and good cheer both get similar type trips. I'll use the both of them

04:37in exotics because I think this is the type of filly who's improving at the right time, so I like

04:41her. I think she runs well. She'll have to run really well to try to be the first filly to beat

04:46good cheer, but I just like the way she's, the direction that she's heading and what she's been

04:50doing recently. Yeah, I also like bless the broken from a handicapping standpoint, and also just from

04:56a fan standpoint, this is such an amazing story. Her trainer, William Walden, he had addiction take

05:02over his life for 12 years, struggled with relapses, and then found horse racing is what brought him

05:08sobriety, and he now has a team of six men that all work together, encouraging each other, using horse

05:13racing and taking care of horses to help them in their substance abuse recovery journey, so it's

05:20just like a kind of a heartwarming story in racing. She's named after the Rascal Flatts song to help you

05:25overcome life's challenges and setbacks, and then they got third in the Oaks, so just such an

05:32incredible story, and horse racing just brings people together so often. This will be a tough spot, but she's

05:38got that closing speed, so I really think if she gets that fast pace to run at, she could be viable in

05:43here at least for a second place behind good cheer. A lot of times we see that the like the discipline

05:47that's needed in horse racing is very good for folks who have had struggles with addiction because

05:52they have to have that discipline every day. It gives them something to strive to, right, which is

05:56amazing, so that's bless the broken, the number five, and when you mentioned Rascal Flatts, I've been

06:01humming life is a highway ever since in my head because that's me and my son Milo. The two outside horses

06:06are a little bit longer shots in here. Look forward. She comes off a win, but I'm a little worried

06:11because her best races are sprinting, and now she's going to be a little bit longer.

06:15I agree. From a distance standpoint, I've passed on her.

06:18And then quick kick. She was really good at two, but I think she might have been really precocious

06:22because we just haven't seen any of her good races this year, Alexa.

06:26Yeah, she's been stagnant, and I think needs a class relief. You know, she's just been in over her head in

06:31these graded stakes.

06:32So we finish up the grade one acorn, and we move to selections. Alexa, I mean, no surprise here. Good

06:38cheer is just so, so tough. You're going to put her on top, and you will use the five, bless the

06:43broken, so that's something that you can maybe take out of this race, that if you're looking for a

06:46little value, Alexa and I both think the five will run really well. We've got the same four horses

06:51there just in slightly different order.

Category

Transcript

Recommended