My favorite Saturday races were allowances, one north, one south, featuring horses I’ve been watching for the last couple of months.

The first was at Gulfstream, the third, featuring my oft-touted Saratoga Russell, who reverted to the form of his first race, wiring the field in sizzling fractions over a sloppy track to win by ten. I don’t know how he measures up to the three-year-olds on the Derby trail, but I love this guy. I’ll have a profile on him up in the next day or two.

The second race I liked today was the sixth at Aqueduct, featuring Irish Blast. He’s an Allen Jerkens colt whom I met last October, and he won his maiden impressively in late December, wiring the field and drawing off to win by seven. In his second race, he was tested in the stretch and was second by two; it seemed like a good education sort of race of him, having to duel with another horse. Today, he was all over the place, and, watching him, you’d never guess that he’d been on the track before. He played bumper cars out of the gate and again in the stretch; he threw his head, he fought his jockey, he changed paths in the stretch…and fought on to lose by a head. He seems to thrive on these stretch challenges, looking other horses in the eye and battling gamely. I like him a lot.

OK, so I’m a little interested in the Derby preps…and picked up some points in the ST Publishing fantasy game when Visionaire finished third in the Risen Star. Not many, but better than nothing. Full standings posted in a couple of days.