Sunday, October 18, 2009

Jackson's Five

Yesterday, October 17, 2009 Jackson Bend ran a huge race to score his fifth consecutive race in a row and his fourth consecutive stakes. His pedigree is a mix of sprint and distance, and as a juvenile he has displayed plenty of the speed and heart that would make him a very tough horse to beat on the derby trail next year, if he continues to carry out his fantastic form. Jackson Bend has been unbeatable since his narrow half length miss in his maiden, and with his most recent victory, stamped himself as something potentially very special.

Yesterday in the In Reality Stakes Jackson Bend went off as a sure thing to win at 4/5 odds. When the gates broke open and released the field of juveniles onto the track Jackson Bend stumbled badly, going to his knees and putting his nose into the dirt. After loosing four or five lengths Jackson Bend recovered quickly and rushed up to be fourth by the first turn. Despite his athleticism he still was pushed three wide into the first turn, while tracking the leaders. As the race progressed Jackson Bend's trip began to smooth out and at the turn he and Bim Bam hooked up to overtake the leader. The battle was short lived, because even before they left the turn Jackson Bend put on a quick burst that propelled himself clear of Bim Bam.

At this point it looked like Jackson Bend would be home free and gallop to the wire unchallenged, which considering the trip he had endured already, would be impressive. As they came out of the turn Thank U Phellipe had no intention on letting Jackson Bend run off and loomed large as he threatened to swallow Jackson Bend. At this point Jackson Bend had every right to fold, no juvenile should be able to win a race where he took a nose dive at the start and was pushed three wide going into the first turn. This, however, was when Jackson Bend proved he was no ordinary two year old. Jackson Bend saw his opponent and instead of folding the gutsy, determined colt dug back in to pull away and win by over two lengths. Jackson Bend refused to loose.

Many people may look at Jackson Bend's record and see that he primarily races and wins at Calder. They might think what the heck is this crazy girl raving about a horse from Calder for, there's no real competition out there to judge whether this colt is for real or not. Well take a step back and take a look at the video of the Frank Gomez Memorial Stakes on July 12. In that race Jackson Bend not only won, but he beat one of the leading juveniles D'Funnybone. In that race he was shuffled back some, raced on the rail, while D'Funnybone got the jump on him in the stretch. All of a sudden Jackson Bend, who looked like he'd be third at best kicked it into a new gear and nailed D'Funnybone on the wire, again refusing to lose.

Juveniles aren't suppose to be doing things like Jackson Bend does, they don't ram there nose into the ground at the start and still come back to win. They don't turn certain loss into a last minute win that is what three year olds and older horses do. Jackson Bend is not an ordinary colt, he is something that could potentially be very special. I would advise anybody to keep an eye on this talented and gutsy colt from now on. He has the speed, he has the guts, now the only question he'll have left to answer this coming spring is can he get 10 furlongs? I for one believe he can.

3 comments:

  1. Hey LDP...nice call! This horse has not won any of his races by daylight, but he is tough, a winner, and for real. I also like your story title, much better than Bend's 5 would have been!

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  2. LDP,

    Be careful of falling in love with a horse that stumbles as badly as this 2y.o. did. DUBLIN did the same thing at the start of the HOPEFUL and won. He came back in the Champagne, ran out of the money at odds-on.

    I'd be sure this win machine is given lots of time to recover after that maximal effort, or the In Reality may be the last win you see from him in a stakes race for quite some time.

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  3. LDP,

    I don't know if you have access to drf plus content...I don't but from the title "Jackson Bend makes case as top juvenile", it seems that Mike Watchmaker was reading your blog ;-)!!!

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