Thursday, January 12, 2006

A Filly Here and a Filly There ...

This time of year horseplayers, handicappers, turf writers and turf writer wannabes are busy writing up and analyzing every 3-year-old colt that has Derby and/or Triple Crown potential. I feel as though that fillies are an after-thought. Maybe. Maybe not. It's probably some sort of woman-weirdo-thing that I feel. I will go ahead and let Steve Haskin of The Blood-horse list every 3-year-old possible. But you know the old saying, "Behind every man, there is a good woman." In this case, "For every good 3-year-old colt, there is a filly that can still put some serious cash in your wallet." And recently, a couple of them caught my eye in a backward-not-paying-attention-and-planned-to-bet-another-horse kind of way.

New Year's Eve was spent at the track. It is a personal neccessity to watch and wager on the final juvenile races of the year. One of them was the Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Now, Tampa Bay Downs is not one of my "usual" simulcast tracks, but I had been watching a filly from Calder, Lake Alice, and she would be running in that stakes race. Admittedly, Lake Alice is a nice little filly, and she won her first stakes in the slop at Calder, but I am a woman and mother and I let my emotions dictate that horse watch. It's the name of my 4-year-old daughter. Alice, not Lake. However, upon review of my racing form, there were a couple of really nice fillies that stood out and subsequently performed admirably.

Misty Rosette had won her career debut at Calder on December 2nd, winning by 6 lengths and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 81. Her second race, the Sandpiper Stakes, she won by more than 3 lengths. It may be a minor stakes race somewhere in Florida, but this gal looks like she's going forward.

As it turns out, Misty Rosette, the tepid 3rd choice in betting, beat the favored Rgirldoesn'tbluff, who was 2 for 2 at the time. She had won her MSW back in October at the Meadowlands then walloped a field in an allowance race at Tampa Bay in December, winning by 11-1/4 lengths and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 89. Toss in that her trainer is Kirk Ziadie, who practically owns a piece of Florida racing ciruit, and she looked tough to beat. She came in fourth in the Sandpiper, but I am definitely looking forward to her in her 3-year-old debut.

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