Jan 24th at GP just keeps looking weirder and weirder

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Jan 24th being Sunshine Millions day.

* Race #5 was run at 3:12 eastern time. It was a 3yo MSW race at 7fs. Dunkirk won it by 5 3/4 lengths over 2nd place finisher Santana Six in a laughably slow 1:25.00

* Race #6 was a turf race

* Race #7 was run at 4:08 eastern time. It was the Sunshine Millions dash at 6fs. This One's For Phil won it in a strong 1:09.10

Obviously, that 15.90 second discrepancy in time would suggest the difference between the nations best older male sprinter in victory and a rock bottom $5,000 claiming older male sprinter in victory.

The problem is that Dunkirk just embarassed an allowance field on Thursday and Santana Six just impressively won a MSW race on Saturday that was the faster of split heats.

Dunkirk's Beyer jumped from a 78 to a 98. Santana Six's from a 66 to a 95.

When I talked about Dunkirk's debut won on the radio and in a thread here - I basically said I wanted absolutely no part of the horse next time he runs. Not only because of the comicaly slow final time .. but because the early pace in that race was run through supersonic fast fractions for the level...and Dunkirk wasn't involved in the early pace.

The three horses you wanted from Dunkirk's race were obviously Santana Six, King's Village, and Ziegfeld. They battled for the lead in the top 3 positions through both the lightening fast first quarter mile and half mile - before all quitting.

Santana Six ran 29 points better and won back next out, Ziegfeld ran 46 points better when he upset a MSW race at 16/1 odds next out, King's Village has yet to run back.

Dunkirk, however, was one of the ones you couldn't possibly want as a bettor. And he ran head scratchingly well burrying that field at 6/5 on Thursday.

There where just two other dirt races on the card prior to Dunkirk's win.

* Race #3 won by Indy's Sonata.. who has yet to run back. 2nd place finisher Run All Day won yesterday's 1st race by 3 lengths - and her figure will improve double digits. The 5th place finisher came back and ran 3rd by just 2 lengths in a stake next out - her figure improving 21 points.

* Race #1 won by Radio Relay. He hasn't run back yet. Neither has the 2nd place finisher. However, 3rd place finisher Bruno's A Biter has run back. He won by 5 1/4 lengths at 7/2 odds and his figure improved 13 points.


That leaves only a pair of stakes won by This One For Phil's and High Resolve as the remaining one-turn dirt races on the card.

Obviously none of the serious horses from TOFP's race have run back - the third place finisher from HR's race did run back.. but only improved her Beyer 3 points.

This is starting to get real interesting to me - because I refuse to believe that This One's For Phil ran much faster than the 116 Beyer given. But the fact that High Resolve ran away with a 250K stake over a solid 12 horse field in just 1:11.55 two races later suggests that the track didn't speed up rapidly after the 5th race was run at 3:12 eastern and before the 7th was run at 4:08.

UNLESS ... the track superintendent did work to make the track clearly faster after the 5th race .. and did work to make the track clearly slower after the 7th race. Crazy thought huh? About as crazy a thought as This One's For Phil and You Luckie Mann both being able to run in the 120's.