No biases that I can see, Poly-wise, at least. On turf, we just had the first race of the day, with second-time grasser Seeking Reason coming through along the inside to capture a $16K starter-allowance for trainer Eric Reed, jock Junior Alvarado.
Race 4 pretty interesting. That might be it for Big Rushlet. Claimed for $25K by trainer Roger Brueggemann and owner Scarlet Stable early in 2009, Big Rushlet quickly earned back the claim price, and then some, winding up 2009 with bout $118K in earnings. Horse had run really well over AP Poly last summer, and was even-money in featured race 4, entered for $62,500 claim option in third-level sprint allowance. But nothing doing this time. Big Rushlet backed up tamely through the stretch, and looked about half as wide as winner King A.J. when that horse came up outside him at the three-sixteenths pole. No surprise if Big Rushlet dropped a few notches in class next time. Hugh Robertson swept the top spots here, with King A.J. not just running back to his May 6 AP win for a $45K tag, but surpassing that form. Robertson-trained pace-setter Celluloid Hero -- aka, The Widowmaker - held well for second.
