I couldn't pick Suffolk Downs-based owner-trainer Patricia Meadow out of a lineup for a million bucks, but on those rare occasions I see her name in the past performances, I picture her as the supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk (left) from the Superman comics. It's not that I think Ms. Meadow is actually the prankster imp from the Fifth Dimension, unfettered by the laws of our physical universe, whose name must be spoken backwards to return to that astral plane. It's the names of her horses.
Ms. Meadow runs the horse with the shortest name and the longest morning-line price on the entire Saturday Saratoga card: Zyxt, a 4-year-old gelding listed at 99-1 in the 8th race. She has run seven other similarly-named horses over the last five years: Yaye, Ybbs, Ydy, Ys, Ytyzz, Zyth and now Zyxt. All appear to be homebreds from her Sky Band Farm in Canton, Massachusetts and four of them including Zyxt are by the local Pine Bluff stallion Say Uncle. Zyxt, in case you were wondering, is a half-brother to Ytyzz.
Zyxt is the lone winner from 33 starts over the last five years for Ms. Meadows and her band of Scrabble-tile runners. He won his debut at Suffolk Downs last Nov. 6, rallying from 18 lengths off the pace to win a mile-and-70-yard maiden race by 3 1/2 lengths, returning what seems like a rather stingy $8.20. He earned a lowly Beyer Speed Figure of 39 for that effort and will probably be close to 99-1 stretching out to 9.5 furlongs on the turf off a nine-month layoff and presumably meeting tougher company. On the other hand, he's bred for the grass in general and this turf course in particular: Zyxt's dam is Bailrullah, who won the Diana in 1987.
I had a little time to waste looking up Zyxt's pedigree tonight because, strange as it may seem, there's no double-carryover into the Test Day card. I was busy finishing a column so didn't see pick-six probables, and assumed it had gone unhit when Gilded Thread won the nightcap at $37.20. Turns out not one but three geniuses managed to include that one along with winners paying $13.80, $19.00 and $27.40 on the same ticket. That was good for a somewhat underlaid payoff of $79.957 on a day when my (thankfully) mythical $5040 play went a whopping 3-out-of-6 on one backup ticket.
Maybe it's for the best. Have you done the work for tomorrow yet? You better start now and put on a pot of coffee. The pick-six races alone have a combined 87 runners before scratches.
But only one Zyxt.
