Magical Ways After Race Update

We received an after-race report on Magical Ways today. There's some good news and some not-so-great news.

Good News First

Magical Ways bounced out of Sunday’s race in good order! Yay! It's encouraging when they race and have no setbacks. This was great news! But that said...

Now the Not So Great News

The 4-year-old son of Maclean’s Music earned a 66 Beyer Speed Figure which was a regression from the start prior but as we mentioned that 76 Beyer Speed Figure two-back returned on the elevated side.

We wanted to note that this is different from the Equibase speed figures which showed he had earned another six point increase, just as he did between his first and second races (70 to 76 to 82), so each successive race has shown improvement. The contrasting numbers boil down to which source you have more confidence in and whose opinion you trust most. Personally, we've always gone by the Equibase figures which are a brighter picture. 

He's also left the connections scratching their heads a bit. Trainer Bill Mott is still trying to figure out what this colt wants to do. Leading into this most recent race he felt that longer was the better for him but after this race Bill felt that may not be the case. To be fair to the horse, he didn't have a chance to run a longer race, since the 1-1/16 race was foregone for the earlier 6.5 furlong race, though the reasoning behind the switch seemed very sound. (Some races aren't filling at Aqueduct, so it was a bird-in-the-hand scenario with the earlier - but shorter - race that was carded for Sunday.)

We, personally, would like to see Magic get a shot at both a longer race and a dry track, because all three of his races to date have been on a wet or muddy but sealed surface. The trainer tried blinkers in the last race, which didn't really seem to have a great amount of impact. So basically, we're all a little stumped. 

The Mott team will continue to monitor him over the coming weeks and once the new condition book is released for the Big A, possible options will be discussed.

Due to a couple of lay-ups for Magical Ways, he got a very late start to his career, with his first race at the tail end of his 3YO season. He has a lot of ground to make up and, unfortunately, if his "code" can't be broken on improving his performance, he may have to drop in class. 

Fingers crossed they find the magical formula for Magical Ways.