[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by taxicab

I don't know how it's going to play out Saturday,but most of the Cali runners certainly belong.

Yeah, the ones trained by Bob Baffert. Judging by the morning line, most of the others should have stayed home.

The money's good,the talent is there...….and come on Rollo,you just can't leave them sitting in the barn.

That's the sad part because that's exactly what they will be doing in the next two weeks when Santa Anita tries to card several stakes that would have featured this very same horses.

And don't forget,California horses have been shipping East and crushing for quite a few years...…...why shouldn't the owners take a shot ?

Well Eurton, D'Amato, and Callaghan have not been crushing back East, that's for sure.

Dark Vader: Big improve in last,horse he beat just won the Snow Chief on Saturday...…..had a sneaky uncomfortable trip @ Sunland.
The Easy Goer field is light...……really light.

Not light enough. Dark Vader is co-5th choice on the ML. He'd be even higher if the connections of Just Whistle opted for the this race instead of an allowance races later on the card.

Dark Vader "improved" because he dropped in class. He went from running over his head in graded stakes company to running in a first condition allowance where he belonged after taking 5 shots to break his maiden.

Take The One O One--who is the reason that Andy Beyer opted to lower the hefty Beyer earned by Bolt D'Oro in last year's Frontrunner--did win his last start, but it was on turf against his fellow Cal-breds.

Dark Vader should have waited for the Affirmed back home.

Moonshine Memories: Double Grade 1 winner,stuck in the quicksand in her BC race.
She needed her last,one turn suits her.

Small, weak fields suit her. She showed absolutely no progression from 2 to 3 in her comeback. Certainly not enough to warrant entry into one of the toughest 3yo filly stakes to date. Santa Anita will be running the Summertime Oaks in less than 2 weeks over the same track and distance she won one of her Grade 1s last year.

Spectator: Grade 2 winner/Grade 1 placed...…...the horse she just ran into in the SA Oaks is a stone cold runner.

The stone cold runner (Midnight Bisou) got pummeled by the morning line favorite for the Acorn. Spectator was obliterated by Moonshine Memories last year and thus is in an even more tenuous position among the the top 3yo fillies than that rival. The Summertime Oaks would have made much more sense for her as well.

I guess we can watch them battle it out down the stretch (probably for 5th about 10 lengths behind the top finishers) so that we have a better gauge of which one will win the listed Torrey Pines at Del Mar.

Stormy Liberal: Last years Breeders Cup Turf Sprint winner...…...just ran second in the toughest turf sprint in the world.
He's the horse to beat,why wouldn't he be here ?

Stormy Liberal certainly has the credentials to be here. The problem is that he's been all over the world and back since the Breeder's Cup. Miller campaigned him hard last year, too (sans the international forays), and had to give him 5 months off after getting blitzed in this same race.

Beautiful Shot: Just ran second,beaten 3/4's of a length to the morning line favorite(Brisnet ?)……….his sprints are all solid.
Barn is outstanding on the ship with price horses.

Whatever magic was performed by the barn with its other horses didn't rub off on this one at either Aqueduct or Oaklawn. I guess there's not much else to shoot for back home, although I hear the Affirmed is coming up awful light if they want to give him one more try around two turns. Might put him in the frame for the Los Alamitos Derby, too.

Ransom The Moon: Gr.1 winner(beating last years BC Sprint Champ) + Gr.2 also...……..was a router in Canada(broke his maiden going 9 furlongs on the grass).

A router in Canada? Yeah, he broke his maiden going 9 furlongs on the turf in something like his 7th career start. He then spent the following year toiling in conditioned allowance races before being reformed as a sprinter to great success in 2017. Why disrupt a good thing? Something tells me they are taking a flyer on the Met Mile's dubious reputation as a "stallion making" race.

Too bad, because the horse made much more sense in the True North the day before...or even the upcoming San Carlos at Santa Anita where he's done some of his best running.

By the way, I think NYRA might have to rethink carding the True North and the Bed O'Roses the same weekend as the Met Mile and the Ogden Phipps, as the cross-entries and flip-flops are wreaking a bit of havoc. It's a little bit like the situation produced by having a BC Sprint, a BC Dirt Mile, and a BC Classic all on the same weekend.

Bolt d'Oro: Dual Gr.1 winner,loaded with talent...….only bad race was the Derby over a surface he didn't handle.
A one turn mile is right in his wheelhouse.

Any horse that can hit the 1/2 in :45 and change is handling the surface fine. The problem was Espinoza took the colt out of his comfort zone and ruined him for the last part of the race. Now you have to have faith that the colt doesn't have any residual affects from that horrendous effort. It also doesn't instill confidence that the colt first was going to be rested for another herculean task in the Pacific Classic, then was rerouted to Woody Stephens, then on the fence for the Preakness, and now has settled on the Met Mile. Personally, I think the Woody Stephens would have been the better spot to get back in form, but it's kind of a motley crew for the Met with more to gain from a good effort.

Fashion Business/Multiplier: I don't like So Cal grass routers heading East,I'll give you this one.

I just hope they'll still be able to fill a conditioned allowance race on the turf at Santa Anita in the next few weeks despite the absence of these two.