Fort Erie Meet Wraps Up With Battle Of Breeds

The 2010 Fort Erie meet will conclude on Tuesday, but not before the thoroughbreds battle the quarter horses in a pair of races over this weekend. The first one took place earlier today and another will be run tomorrow. In today's race, a 440 yard dash, quarter horse Fast Flung Floyd took the win in :21.91 in a field dominated mostly by quarter horses.



Tomorrow's race will be a little bit longer and has attracted more thoroughbreds. The field of eight includes four horses of each breed and will be run over 870 yards for a purse of $50,000. To me, this race is shaping up to favour the thoroughbreds. When you look at the field, only two quarterhorses have covered this distance, while most of the thoroughbreds are shortening up. With this race, there's not much to analyze. If a horse on the front end has enough in the tank, they should be able to bring it home. I like Daverick to win this race. Not only is he Fort Erie's top thoroughbred sprinter this year, but he turned in a lightning quick work of :34.00 over three furlongs earlier this week. The top quarter horse is Silver Grill, who is one of the quarter horses that has run 870 yards already this season and was a winner at Ajax Downs. I think the winner is going to be one of these two horses but I won't count out Texas Blitz either. Texas Blitz was really good at two furlongs earlier this season and has front end speed that he could use to get ahead. When looking at track analyst Elissa Blowe's analysis of the race, she notes that quarter horse Vital Drive had a good workout prepping for this race at the distance, despite the fact the horse has not raced at this distance. This horse could be a longshot play. Nonetheless I think I'm going to go with the chalk here and a horse on a winning streak. My selections are below:

1. Daverick
2. Silver Grill
3. Texas Blitz
LONGSHOT: Vital Drive

Another factor in this race could be the track conditions. As I'm writing this in Toronto, there's a little bit of light rain falling and rain has been falling for the last few hours which could make the track sloppy. The weather is supposed to clear up overnight and during the morning at Fort Erie, so the track could firm up by post time. I would think the track could be listed as good by the time this race is run, but it's something to consider when making your selections.

Hopefully, for viewers in Canada, The Score will cover this race tomorrow on their weekly Woodbine Racing Live coverage. Post time is set for 1:51 p.m. for this race and Woodbine usually does a good job covering races from Fort Erie on Sundays.

Posted in: Fort Erie