Catching My Eye with Jason Beem: Colonial Downs 2024, Week 1
Welcome to the first edition of Catching My Eye for the 2024 season at Colonial Downs. We race Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until Sept. 7, and I will recap the weekends and share some thoughts each Tuesday.
Opening day Thursday went quite well last week, but unfortunately we had to cancel Friday’s races because the rain just would not stop. But Saturday went off without much of a hitch, so hopefully it’s all clear skies and turf races ahead of us.
Integration
Integration was certainly the headliner of the weekend, the even money morning line favorite for the $125,000 Million Preview on Saturday.
When his three main rivals scratched out of the race, it seemed there wasn’t going to be much question about if he’d win, but rather how it would look. Saturday’s turf was listed as soft and was certainly noticeable in the three races on the grass that horses weren’t skipping over it like they normally do.
Kendrick Carmouche immediately looked to get Integration outside of Happyisashappydoes who appeared on paper to be the pacesetter. I think when you have a 1-9 shot, you keep 'em in the clear and let 'em roll and that was Kendrick’s plan. He made his move at the three-eighths pole and while he got to the lead, he didn’t exactly power away from his rivals the way Nadette did in the Beverly D. Preview just 30 minutes earlier.
It looked as though Kendrick was struggling to get Integration to switch leads a few times down the lane. With just two rivals and a course that had been crushed with rain the day before, it’s tough to know how good this effort really was. Integration has proved he’s not far behind the best in his division, but he’s going to have to deliver a little more in my opinion to win the Million (G1) next month if that is indeed where we see him next.
#4 Integration adds another stakes win to his resume in the Million Preview S. at @colonialdowns under @kendrickcarmou1 for trainer Shug McGaughey! 🏆
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) July 13, 2024
🎥 #TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/IHxDPOXv0r
Main track was fast
One of the stories this weekend was how quick the main track was playing.
There was only one dirt race Thursday, and a maiden $40,000 two year-old filly named Libitina stopped the clock in 1:09.45 over six furlongs. Fast forward to Saturday and in the first race of the day on dirt, first-time starter Love Me Tender set a track record for 5 1/2 furlongs going in 1:01.30!
The 1 1/16-mile track record also fell Saturday when Have You Heard completed the distance in 1:39.66! It’s worth noting about 70% of our races are on grass and Colonial has a short meet, so there’s maybe a handful of times that these distances even get run on during the summer here. But the point remains – the main track was super fast. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we see it slow down a tick or two this coming week.
Sleepwalker
One of the maybe subtle lousy trips of opening weekend went to Sleepwalker in the ninth race from Thursday.
The Mark Casse trainee was wide on both turns and around the far turn started to make up some ground in the four path. However once they straightened, he got jostled about a couple of times by the eventual winner and the horse to his outside. Antonio Gallardo kind of shut it down at that point and cruised home to a fifth-place finish. I think if Sleepwalker comes back at a similar level, he could be a really logical win candidate next time out.
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