For the record, I don’t believe in hexing horses.

by Ron Gurfein

Wind and overcast skies prevailed on Friday morning. Even with the inclement weather and just a few viewers on The Deck, the mood was upscale, elevated by both the good horses and the realization that we are quite likely to have sports betting at racetracks in Kentucky. The vote to send the bill to the Kentucky legislature had no descenting parties. The word on the street is that as of today it is likely to pass and then shortly thereafter be signed into law by the governor. This will represent another major positive to the harness racing community. I will give updates on the progress of the passage in my Ask the Guru column next Friday.

I am not a believer of the idea that if you write good things about a horse or predict a good future for a horse it is a hex and will ruin his career. That’s an old wives tale.

That said, Freddy Grant had two very talented colts that I wrote about last year that due to some issues never reached their full potential. Freddy will tell you that they had some problems not caused by my column. Therefore I will have another go at it.

The first two horses that caught my eye Friday morning came from the Grant barn. Fred trained Island Lilly a Chapter Seven filly out of Up Front Hotsey and talented assistant Frode Fladen had PowerplayGoal a Muscle Mass colt from Finesse Hanover, a colt I loved as a yearling, loved training last year and was a six-figure purchase. Freddy said they are a pair of green 3-year-olds that he was high on last year and feels that they are stakes caliber horses at some level if they stay together.

I didn’t see much of the Alagna group go, but a few I liked were Choir Master, a colt by Mach Three out of Ideal Helen, It’s Showtime a Captaintreacherous colt from the good mare Uffizi Hanover and Rollnthejoe a colt by Roll With Joe from Sweet Bonnie.

The highlight of the morning was Matt Krueger’s exclamation “can you believe Tony actually let me cut a mile?”

Domenico Cecere and his Lindy Farm group had a busy morning as Frank M. Antonacci was a visiting trainer. Looking particularly good were Captain Terror, a Captaintreacherous colt from Pink Terror, Lindy At The Beach a Somebeachsomewhere filly out of Lindys Nightmare, and Gai Waterhouse p. 2, 150.3 $171,812, a wonderful stakes-winning daughter of Western Ideal from the good Brittany Farm mare The Art Museum.

On Saturday, the weather was not much improved, and began colder with more wind.

It was an excellent morning for some big-ticket colts. My top three of the day were: Maverick the million-dollar full-brother to Greenshoe from the Alagna barn and driven by Tony, Goodashim Hanover, the $240,000 full-brother to Greenshoe’s sire Father Patrick, driven by Jimmy Takter for Domenico Cecere and Lindy Farms and Abuckabett Hanover a colt by Betting Line from the Western Ideal mare All Tucked Up a $160,000 Harrisburg yearling trained and driven by Alagna.

Megan Scran owns and trains Farspeak a 3-year-old Artspeak colt from This Fool Rocks who looked like a bargain at $14,000.

From Webster/Croghan came a wonderful group of 2-year-olds co-owned by Dana Parham and Let It Ride Stable. The very athletic duo of Bang Bang (I love the name) a Sweet Lou filly out of Jolting Kate and Totally Rusty, a Rustys For Real filly from Rustys Joy, looked great.

Bardmiry, a Sweet Lou filly from Quick Babe, I’m Sponge Worthy, a Somebeachsomewhere colt from Love Canal, Shameless Bluechip a Betting Line filly from Fox Valley Shaker and Seeyoubye Bluechip, a Sweet Lou filly out of Lotsa Matzah, all were very nice.

A trio of fine 2-year-olds from Travis Alexander were Nine Mile Marla, a Class Included filly from Stormont Catchme, Bank Examiner, an Uncle Peter filly from Examination and Indian Caviar, a Triumphant Caviar colt out of Keystone India.

David McDuffee watched Creedom the Swan For All filly out of the Muscle Hill mare Cree that he pushed Lindy Farms to $95,000 on the last night of the Lexington sale and remarked what a great gait she has, as well as pedigree.

Please take note that this column will appear only twice a month. Therefore, it will not just be Saturdays from the deck but can include Fridays, too. It will be basically every other week weather permitting with the exception of Feb. 2 Super Bowl Sunday when I will be out of town. Have a wonderful week and please don’t miss Ask The Guru next Friday.