Pimlico- November 24, 2012

[--RACE MONGER]

Pimlico Downs Classic
November 24th

My, my, what have we here? It seems I have recently found myself taking an interest in the riveting world of horse racing. Track side drama is so enthralling, I decided I just couldn't help myself but to say something about the goings on there.

In the Two Year Old, newcomer on the racing scene, Emilia Alexander seems to have found herself a keeper in the young horse Critical. Angela Eastman put in quite the ride, letting Critical romp to an easy three length victory. There was quite a bit of excitement in the air over the photo finish for second place between Ashton Sharpe's two year old Arizona, ridden by Kayla Tucker, who came from behind at the last second and Devan Gates' Little Daily Daisy ridden by Sloane Accer who lead the pack right out of the gate. In the end, though, Arizona stuck his nose out at just the right time to cross the wire ahead of the fading Little Daily Daisy. On the other end of the spectrum, I'm thinking Emilia may want to re-think some things when it comes to her other two year old Elysium, who was ridden by a stand in jockey from out of town, as the young horse just seemed to lack the desire to run today. Danny Jenner's Allinatizzy didn't seem to pleased with being on the rail and gave Johanna Eastman a rough ride. I just hope Danny didn't blame her for the horse's lack of effort.

The Three Year Old was really just a duel between two horses. Diablo D'Oro, trained by Emilia Alexander was the first horse out of the gate, piloted by Anthony Lovasz, and boy could you tell that he wanted it. However, Ashton Sharpe's Tree Hugger, ridden by Lyric Blackwell, wasn't going to just roll over and play dead like the rest of the field. Tree Hugger stalked Diablo D'Oro the whole race until the final stretch where Lyric asked for a move and got exactly that. Anthony tried to keep Diablo D'Oro in line, but when Tree Hugger went by, the man-eater decided that the young jockey on the other horse looked like a good candidate for his next meal, and Anthony had to check him hard to keep him from plowing into and killing the competition. He just couldn't get his stride back after that, and lost by a length to Tree Hugger. Emilia's other horse in the race, Piccatune ridden by Angela Eastman crossed the finish line about six lengths behind Diablo D'Oro to take third. Devan Gates' horse, Ace of Spades was totally checked out from the race and despite Sloane Accer's generous use of the whip, never even put forth an effort. Danny Jenner's morning just got worse when Symphonic tripped out the gate, nearly unseating Johanna Eastman, and pulled up lame, never crossing the finish line.

The Derby was not much of a thriller, unless you were on team Darius Everwood. His colt, Grey Ghost ridden bi Eli Young demolished the field, leading from wire to wire, to win by an easy ten lengths, practically loping across the finish line. Danny Jenner's weekend started to look up when Lyric Blackwell piloted Quote Me to a second place finish one length over his other colt, Shutter Speed ridden by Johanna Eastman. He seemed to be in relatively better spirits after that, and was overheard telling Angela Eastman that she rode well on Hotwheels, despite placing second to last. I have my suspicions, though, that he was just glad that she placed above Casey Sharpe's Beat It ridden by Anthony Lovasz.

The Oaks was a bit more exciting than the Derby, with more than just a little cat fight down the home stretch. Just off the final turn, a horse whose name escapes me ridden by Angela Eastman was in the lead, and being chased down by Devan Gates' Cassurina Cantina ridden by Sloane Accer. Just as Sloane was about to go by, Angie's horse decided to rip a chunk out of Cassurina Cantina. Naturally, the mare reacted by slowing dramatically to get out of reach of Angie's horse's teeth, and ended up finishing second. Of course, the stewards reviewed the footage, and determined that Cassurina Cantina would have won, so gave her the first place finish and bumped Angie down to second. In third was Kayla Tucker on Ashton Sharpe's Cloud Nine, followed by Danny Jenner's three mares who seemed to think that the race was only between the three of them and refused to put out enough effort to chase down the rest of the field.

In the Four Year Old, Anthony Lovasz seemed to have figured out the trick to Oh Danny Boy's success. Danny Jenner decided to equip the horse with a hood to keep Oh Danny Boy from seeing the horses behind him. They were first out of the gate, which worked to their advantage, and they lead from wire to wire with impressive gumption. Count Mondego, ridden by Johanna Eastman and By George ridden by Angela Eastman were second and third, giving Danny a clean sweep of the Four Year Old. Devan Gates wasn't so lucky. His horse Colt Forty Five came out of the gate bucking, and when Sloane Accer went to the whip to get him to behave, it only made matters worse. He never really hit his stride, and something definitely seemed off. Devan should certainly look into the cause of that mishap... and Sloane should perhaps consider using methods other than the whip and long strings of expletives to gain her desired outcome.

The Mares only further served to boost Danny Jenner's weekend ratings when Johanna Eastman rode Take That to a win by seven and three quarters lengths over Ashton Sharpe's mare, Broadway ridden by Jo's little sister, Angela Eastman. This race turned out to be a battle between the siblings with Ashton's little brother, Casey Sharpe pulling out a well deserved third with Love The Fall ridden by Anthony Lovasz. Love The Fall trailed the pack by a good eight lengths, then rallied on the final turn to pass by the other three horses in the race, and finished just a neck behind Broadway. Kayla Tucker brought up the rear on a horse from out of town who looked like she'd never run more than a quarter mile, and I doubt that we will be seeing that mare running against the big girls again.

The Handicap wasn't much of a race. Once again, Danny Jenner came out on top with When You Wish and Johanna Eastman over the boys. The two of them have turned out to be quite the power couple, and there's no question as to why Danny has started hoarding Jo's rides, or why she lets him. Once again, the Sharpe brothers dueled it out with Casey Sharpe's Light Grenade with Mackenzie Ferreira on board coming out on top. Ash's horse, Loose Lips put in a good try under the guidance of Lyric Blackwell but just couldn't quite get there. Danny's horse, Much Ado didn't seem to like the sloppy track, and although he was only about a length behind the horse in front of him, he just didn't seem happy out there. Perhaps he was just afraid to pass Casey's horse, Broken Hyms, who, if I'm not mistaken, seemed to be giving Much Ado the evil eye throughout the race.

The results of the Open were really no surprise. The track was sloppy and they might as well have been running through a muddy lake, most of the horses being turned mud brown before the race even started, giving all of the, but one, the eventual winner, a drab, discontent look. Danny Jenner stood in the winner's circle once again with Starshocked and Angela Eastman who destroyed the field by an easy six and a half lengths over Ashton Sharpe's Calle Ocho ridden by Eli Young and Danny's other horse, Nobel's Finest who checked out of the race the second he started getting mud in his face, and it was all Johanna Eastman could do to keep him a neck in front of an out of town horse that was barreling down on them under the direction of Kayla Tucker. Casey Sharpe's two horses seemed to be more focused on killing one another than actually running, which is ironic, considering their names both contain the word "run."

In the final race of the meet, Angela Eastman found herself in the winner's circle yet again in the Flying, this time aboard her sister's crazy mare, Erin Shore. Matthew Grant's horse, Charmed to be Lucky with Lyric Blackwell riding, didn't stand a chance against Angie and Erin Shore once they got out front, but put in a good run for second. Superstar ridden by Mackenzie Ferreira and trained by Ashton Sharpe came in third, despite stumbling out the gate and having to go around the other horses to come in the money.

As for trainers, a few of them should take a lesson or two home from Danny Jenner's success, that it takes more than just running a horse on the track occasionally to produce winners... and by a few, I mostly mean Casey Sharpe who rarely even actually shows up to train his horses, leaving his brother to do his dirty work. Emilia Alexander has done fairly well, for a newcomer, especially with Diablo D'Oro, and whatever she's doing, she should keep doing it. Ashton Sharpe and Darius Everwood are right up there with Danny, but I can't help but think that if he would put his foot down and focus all of his efforts on his own horses and leave Casey's to his brother's own devices, he might make his way up closer to the top. I don't know much about Devan Gates, but part of me wonders if he laid off the booze, which he so strongly smells of, if he might have more success on the track. Dally Jepsen is even more of a mystery with only one horse, but I'm sure we'll find out more about her soon enough.

When it comes to jockeys, Johanna Eastman has obviously figured out that riding for a well established trainer pays off and was in the money in more than half of the races, but she should probably start keeping some of her secrets to herself, as her little sister, Angela Eastman was in the money in seven of the nine races, being the winningest jockey of the meet. Anthony Lovasz should probably consider riding more sane horses, as he was out of the money in all but three of the races, but we all already know that he won't. I get the feeling that Eli Young would be more successful if he would get put on more horses, but we all know how hard that can be. For such a young rider, Lyric Blackwell has done quite well for herself, even though she was only in the money on four horses. Since she's riding for Danny, she must be good. I haven't seen much of Mackenzie Ferreira, but certainly hope to see more, especially after her rally in the sprint to take third. As for Sloane Accer and Kayla Tucker, they were the least winningest jockeys with only two horses in the money, but we all know they can only go up from here, right? Maybe Sloane's issue arrises with only riding for one trainer, but after the mishap on Colt Forty Five, I can't help but wonder if perhaps she could use a little instruction on how to get a horse going without a whip or cursing angrily at them the whole way around the track. I'm not really sure where Kayla went wrong, since she rode in all of the races. Maybe it's just inexperience, or maybe she liked the mud about as little as the horses did. Whatever it was, we can only hope that she and Sloane have better luck next time.