Charles Town Classic Entries: Commentator, Mast Track,Magnum

[Altanbarr]

Not bad. Some top jocks and trainers too.

10th Race - Charles Town - Saturday, April 18th, 2009
STAKES. 1 1/8 Mile Dirt. Purse $500,000. Charles Town Classic S.. FOR FOUR YEARS OLD AND UPWARD. (10:00 PM) (10)
PP Horse A/S M/E Wgt Jockey Trainer
1 Dry Martini 6 G LA 114 Prado Tagg Barclay
2 Zappa 7 G LA 114 Quinonez Sadler John W.
3 Researcher 5 G LA 116 Carmouche Runco Jeff C.
4 No Advantage 4 CLA 114 Whitacre Beattie Stephanie S.
5 Ah Day 6 G LA 120 Acosta J. D. Leatherbury King T.
6 Commentator 8 G LA 123 Velazquez Zito Nicholas P.
7 Ea 5 G LA 116 Castellano Albertrani
8 Magnum 8 G L 120 Flores Vienna Darrell
9 Delaware River 8 G 114 Nicol,. Campbell
10 Mast Track 5 H LA 114 Leparoux Julien Frankel Robert J.

[oliverstoned]

Not bad at all. They picked a good time to to run it, not like some tracks who don't seem to pay attention to the stakes schedule of other tracks.

[Hotwalker]

very nice. Commentator won the Mass Cap last year in style. If he's feeling good there aren't many better.

[Blue feather]

I remember going to Charles Town on a Saturday night before slots. The place was empty. Seemed like less than 100 in attendance. Slots has brought them a long way. Who would have thought they would have attracted one of the best horses in the country. Should be an interesting race.

[griff]

Wait until they vote in table gambling this summer.

griff

[Tucumcari]

I will take the Argentinian on top. Been working on 1.11 and change on the tight turn training track and if it happens to maybe be a wet track, he's the horse. Hasn't run a bad one since loosing his jewels.

[Altanbarr]

I like a Dry Martini, the only true closer.

[Giacomo_05]

A couple of things about this race...First off, Researcher was very impressive and I'm looking forward to seeing this horse face some graded company later in the year as his trainer hinted. Second, however, despite the intriguing format, I almost viewed this race as sort of a cross between an exhibition and a set-up for the home town horse...THANKS TO THIS BIZARRO 3 TURN MINOR LEAGUE TRACK!!

I think the 3 turn deal is even more significant than a horse trying a different surface for the first time. It's amazing to me that neither of the G1 winners even finished in the money, but I really think that some of the trainers and/or owners should have been more cognizant about what was in store...instead of just succumbing to the "enhanced" purses.

In sum, the format was a great way for dare I say, a second-rate facility (and I could care less about the total handle and slots, etc.) to attract accomplished runners who would fall face first into their trap. To me, this was the equivalent of an independent minor league baseball team with a gimmick 270 foot right field fence armed with 8 left handed hittters in their lineup offering a major league team novelty incentives to come play them-now this would never happen of course so why did it happen in Charles Town?

[oliverstoned]

Wow Giacomo thats pretty harsh. Your right though a hometown will have an advantage in this race but I think Commentator is a kinda all or nothing horse and Mast Track likes poly. If the track continues to keep the purse up and run this race at this time of year it will be graded in no time.

[Altanbarr]

It was a very nice evening. Good weather. Good crowd, Free admission. Free parking. Too bad I got crushed at the window. Like anything new, I'm sure running for the first time at CT is a disadvantage for horses that have never run a three turn race. There was a lot of speed in the race and I expected all the front runners to crumble. Researcher fooled me.