Invasor [ARG]

[BargainBlueblood]

Holy Invader decimates his field with ease! Will be interesting to see if someone claimed him out of the race. Anxiously awaiting the full chart to come up on DRF.com.

[Brigitte]

A spectacular winning margin! I hope it's the last time he runs in a claimer. Expression and Photon were both claimed out of their first wins. He's All Alex was claimed here. Holy Invader was probably saved by his Aqueduct clunker (what was that about? Who cares?):

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/PRX013112USA3.pdf

Charts come up right away on Equibase, Bargain Blueblood. [/url]

[Brigitte]

Red Flair is entered in a $10,000 mcl at Laurel Feb 3 at a mile on dirt for a purse of $3,000.

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/LRL020312USA-EQB.html#RACE9

I looked at the mile fractions for Holy Invader's Aqueduct mile MSW vs the Parx mile & 70 claimer: faster at Aqu. The good news is mile fractions can be sprint fractions but Holy Invader will probably run longer than a mile after this.

Aqu fractions: 23.31 46.94 1:12.87 1:38.71 He broke 2nd, faded
Parx fractions: 23.80 48.49 1:13.46 1:40.11 He set the last 3 fractions

[Brigitte]

Galilee was 6th 0f 13. Last time he hardly ran at all and was pulled up. This time he was 7th out of the gate, moved up to 5th, fell back to 10th then saved ground and finished 6th. So he moved forward, helped by the drop in class which produced slower fractions. Should improve more next time ...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/GP020212USA3.pdf

It's interesting that there seem to be two techniques to get slower fractions. One is a drop in class that we saw with Galilee and, at a higher level, with Holy Invader. The other is a longer race that we saw tried with Kollos (5.5 to 7f), and successful with Five Sixteen (9 f) and Golf Juan (9.5 f).

[Brigitte]

Princess Kiha steps out of the claiming ranks Feb 5 in a starter allowance at GG at a mile on synthetic. The purse is $18,300.

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GG020512USA-EQB.html#RACE5

She ran so much better on the all weather than on turf that she may not really be stepping up in class here.

[Brigitte]

It wasn't a good day for debutantes. Azure Hills raced in 3d to the half, fell back and finished 7th, beating only the other filly that made her debut.
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/FG020312USA10.pdf

Red Flair, jostled at the start, was 2nd "well off the rail" most of the race but weakened in the stretch to 3d. He earned $1,440. His record is now 6,3,6,3,6,3 - here's to a 1 next time!
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/LRL020312USA9.pdf

[Brigitte]

The mare Concern Nacca was sold to Japanese connections in foal to Invasor. The colt was bought by a Japanese owner for $222,000, but I never found him with Google. I posted a question on the Japan Racing blog here (magnificent photography by Ishida Kazushi! well worth a visit!) and got news of him:

"Perhaps,he is a chestnut named God Tree.
Here is written about him(Japanese site)
http://data.keibalab.jp/selectsale/2010 ... 010&id=157
He hasn't run in a race yet.But it seemed he passed the exam of gate the other day.
Perhaps,he will run in a race soon.

Kazushi

Once he races he should come up in searches,

[Brigitte]

Add God Three to the list of 2009 Invasors - here's the Japanese studbook entry, there are three tabs the tab on the left gives the owner & trainer etc, and the racetrack tab will give his races when there is data available:

[url]http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.jbis.or.jp/horse/0001113006/pedigree/&ei=9sYsT-HtMab8iQLZip3lCg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq="god+three+(JPN)"+Invasor%26hl=en%26biw=1216%26bih=9[/url]

[Brigitte]

Photon returns in a $15,000 claiming race at Gulfstream on Feb 8 at a mile on dirt. Purse $19,000. He'll be ridden by Fernando Jara.

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP020812USA-EQB.html#RACE1


Gagne is in a $25,000-20,000 mcl at Laurel on Feb 9 for a tag of $20,000. (she gets 2 lbs). Her last race was a $40,000 mcl so this race should also have slower early fractions so she stays up front - hopefully to the end. The purse is $22,000.

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/LRL020912USA-EQB.html#RACE9

[Brigitte]

Princess Kiha "settled early, fell back on the second turn, and was eased in the stretch". She certainly did settle early because the first two fractions of the mcl she won were faster, not slower, than the fractions in this race and Kiha was closer to the lead by 4 lengths and 13.5 lengths, respectively, to those faster fractions. She ran very differently from the start.

Two Invasors, Five Sixteen and Fortin, are TC nominated. Fortin is in training but hasn't raced yet. He is owned by Haras Aquila who also own Holy Invader.

Clh: hope you're doing well!

[Brigitte]

Vader sprints! He's running in a 6f allowance at Beulah on Feb 10 for 3 yos and upwards for a purse of $9,100. All but 2 of the horses are 4 so he has a weight break - 4 lbs. He is the ML favorite by a very slight margin.

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/BEU021012USA-EQB.html#RACE5

[Brigitte]

Interesting news

Photon ran well. He closed from 7th and the winner was "all out to hold off Photon", who earned $3,150 for the place.

Photon, the 5th betting choice, was the only horse claimed. His new trainer is Dutrow, who trains Holy Invader. It seems likely Dutrow picked Photon as a good claim for the owner ...

http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/GP020812USA1.pdf

[Brigitte]

Gagne was scratched from her race today.

Five Sixteen is running Feb 11 in a 1m 70 yd MSW at Aqu on the inner-track for a prize of $65,000.
http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/AQU021112USA-EQB.html#RACE5

[clh]

Brigitte, gimping around - thanks! Am bummed that I won't make "the boy's" race on Friday but here's hoping Vader does well. He really needs longer than 6f and it will be interesting to see how he does against older horses - he might not like that . This will be the first time we've raced against friends of ours - Potential Argument (Closing Argument out of Rokeby Lynn) is running in this race as well. It was difficult enough running against Damien, now we've got to run against friends . Oh well, hope the boy does well!

[Brigitte]

Clh, glad you're baaack!

I'm off early tomorrow, won't be back till Sunday. Unless I find a public computer I won't know anything about what's happened till then. But I'm sending positive vibes to Beulah.