The $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park features seven filles and mares. It appears to be a two-horse race with It's Tricky, who has won three graded events this year, and Royal Delta, who battled with that one in the Personal Ensign last time out.
The $1 Million Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday at Belmont features a cast of 10 led by Fort Larned, Ron the Greek, Flat Out, and Hymn Book, the top four finishers in the G1 Whitney at Saratoga, and any one of them could take it depending on the trip they get.
Over the last few days, we’ve released several new game features and improved others. As the website speed continues to improve, more time is now going back into modifications, enhancements, new features, etc.
Saturday's $1 million Cotillion Stakes features only four fillies going 9 furlongs lead by Questing. Questing won the Alabama by nine lengths, earning a monster speed figure, and will be tough to beat.
Alpha heads the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at 1 1/8 miles at Parx Racing in Bensalem on Saturday. Alpha is the leading 3-year-old still in training and most recently won the Grade 1 Travers along with Golden Ticket, who finished with him in a dead heat.
As we continue to improve the site speed, the majority of the development team has moved to the project tasks I discussed last week. Over the next 2 to 3 weeks, I expect the initial tasks to be complete. This includes adding new tournaments, Blue’s and Green’s (sloppy and soft turf), navigation improvements, and better search functions on the site.
First, the good news. I think it should be apparent by now that the site speed issue is pretty much resolved. The average load time is under 2 seconds, actually closer to 1.5 seconds. Except for a couple of special pages, which we are working on, the site speed issue is now well under control.
The 1 1/8 mile $500,000 Grade 2 Super Derby this Saturday at Louisiana Downs features a cast of 9 runners, led by Blueskiesandrainbows, who is coming off a big win in the Grade 2 Swaps at Hollywood, in which he earned a career best 103 Speed Figure.
On Saturday, a short field of five will go postward in the 1 ¼ mile, Grade 2, $200,000 Bowling Green Stakes, the opening day feature for Belmont Park’s fall meeting. Grade 1 winner Brilliant Speed, Group 1 winner Brujo de Olleros, and Grade 2 winners Air Support and Newsdad will contest the 1 ¼ mile event on the Belmont turf course.
I just finished reading the 49 comments posted to my last update. I’m not really sure where the direction or miss-direction is coming from, but there is definitely some confusion. I’m not going to go there right now. I will stay focused on my first priority and that is site speed. Though we have taken some steps backwards, the site speed has slowly improved.
As mentioned last week, the number one initiative right now is site speed. It seems like every time I take a step forward, the next day, I’m dealing with a new issue. I’m working with 2 different consulting groups and all of our team resources, hopefully, will make substantial progress this week. With that said, this very detailed email addresses the short-term initiatives for our game.
There have been some great horses produced in this game, some of them already retired and others still racing. It’s always that first great horse that everyone will remember. Lord Outstanding, owned by brianshaw23, is that first great horse.
Shackleford heads a field of eight for the Grade I, $500,000 Forego Stakes Saturday at Saratoga. Coming off a disappointing effort in the AG Vanderbilt over a muddy surface that perhaps wasn't to his liking, he will be the one to beat if he can come close to the effort that won him the Grade I Met Mile back in May.
The $750,000 Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday is headlined by Mucho Macho Man who is looking for the first Grade 1 stakes victory of his career. He is coming in off a strong win in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont in July.
