Johnny Eves and David Flores winning the Malibu (Charles Pravata)

I’m a little bummed that I didn’t handicap the Malibu [DRF], not that I would have hit anything. This was just the kind the kind of race I love to play… a decent sized field with only a couple of favorites and a lot of potential at nice odds. These types of fields are more typical of allowance or claiming races, rarely graded stakes, let alone a G1… let’s hope there’s more of this in 2008!

I threw a little sentimental bet on Great Hunter, I’ll have to watch the replay to see his performance. It looked like he was either a little bottled up or hesitant about pushing his way through, hard to tell. Either way I’m glad he’s back.

I thought Cobalt Blue looked good in the parade and I noticed Johnny Eves ($24) in the parade as well. I was also happy to see Hurry Up Austin get up for 4th, I’ve always liked him for whatever reason.

I love to see a horse step up the way Johnny Eves did. Jay Robbins, his trainer, said in the post race interview that he trains like good horse… good to see him proof it. And let’s hear it for geldings! David Flores is also off with a bang winning 4 on the card.

If you were lucky enough to have the $1 Super, you had a 120,856.50 payday. If you had the $1 trifecta, you had a $8,831.50 payday!

In other payout news, even with 3 races paying out more than $20 per winner, the Pick 6 was hit at Aqueduct!

The results are as follows:

  4th: Wild Garden ($3.50)

  5th: Cherna ($40.40)

  6th: Hunsley Bunsley ($8.70

  7th: Dance Gal Dance ($23.40)

  8th: Beau Dare ($8.10)

  9th: Unbreelievable ($20.40)

$2 Payout: $91,252… congrats to all who hit that ticket! Definitely Ubreelievable.

Malibu race replay at NTRA.