Thanks to the fourth race being taken off the turf, there were three maiden special weight races for 2-year-old males run at seven furlongs today at Saratoga in a five race span, making comparisons of these races seemingly straightforward.

The first of these juvenile maiden races, race 2, was won by the 9-1 Unionizer in 1:26.29.

The second, race 4, was won by the 18-1 Cairo Cat in 1:26.58.

The third, race 6, was won in going away fashion by the Chad Brown-trained first time starter Network Effect, who was ice on the board at 8-1, in 1:24.62.

There was talk after Cairo Cat's win about the Saratoga main track being slow today, and it certainly is slower than it often plays. However, Greek Alphabet went out and won the fifth race, a first level allowance race and the other race taken off the turf and run at seven furlongs on the main track, in 1:23.85. That was lightning compared to those two earlier juvenile maiden races.

Granted, Greek Alphabet ran big in victory. That, however, should not obscure the fact that races 2 and 4 were simply painfully slow, and the 2-year-olds who contested those races are, at this still very early stages of their careers, also painfully slow.

Greek Alphabet also provided a measure by which one can say that Network Effect, who is obviously way faster than his contemporaries who raced earlier on the card, is also okay despite being so dead on the board.