Amidst Waves outruns her odds and breaks her maiden under Eric Cancel (NYRA/Coglianese)
Belmont Park, Race 7 – 06/11/2023
By 2YO EdgeMan
BEL7:061123 – Longshot – #9 Amidst Waves – flashed a fancy turn of foot in the last furlong to win comfortably by nearly four lengths for owner Dew Sweepers, trainer George Weaver and jockey Eric Cancel. Our pick – #5 Mayfly – battled with the favorite #4 Precisely for the lead all the way through the turn in fractions of 23.19 and 45.97, before running out of juice early in the stretch run – ultimately finishing fourth. The tote board lit up with a fat $43.00 in the $2W column and the final time was 57.39 seconds which converted to an uninspiring 70 E-Speed fig. The winner has not yet been minted in the Game of Silks, so it shows how many terrific opportunities there are left to get talented runners.
Learnings – Honestly, we are not really kicking ourselves for not identifying this horse as a strong win contender. Weaver is 0 for 7 at Belmont in the Spring and Midshipman is only 7 for 67 (10.4%) with 2YO MSW runners on the turf from 2012 thru 2022 at the ‘Top 11 Tracks’. The only thing that stands out is that she was one of only two in this event that had run previously, but that would not have been enough for me to flag a winning move.
There is more exciting two-year-old racing action on deck for later this week at both ELP and BEL, so stay close to this site and our ‘Picks, Plays and Pontification’ columns. We appreciate you!
