In the Especial Guatán, Ataka wants to add a new victory, for pennies...

The daughter of Señor Candy is coming off winning two handicaps at Palermo and is now changing tracks to continue the streak; the prize for the winner will be a very low 3,850,000 pesos, before deductions...

Ataka is ready to win again, despite the weight / JUAN I. BOZZELLO

SAN ISIDRO, Buenos Aires (Special for Turf Diario).- In the endless course of the country's main racetracks offering their public low-quality meetings, this Friday it will once again be the turn of San Isidro, which has prepared a card with 12 races.

The feature will be the Especial Guatán, for mares 5 years old and up with 3 or more wins and over 1,200 meters on the dirt track, giving the winner a miserable prize of 3,850,000 pesos, which, after the customary deductions, will turn into little more than $2,600,000—useful for paying barely a couple of months of board.

In Argentina, if an owner happens to have a specimen of few aptitudes, they collect little money; if they have a runner, a productive one, one of those hard to find, they do too. In such a way, horse racing becomes unfeasible, losing day after day people who want to be part of it from the inside, which then rebounds on sales and the equine population, which has not stopped falling for several seasons.

While the leadership (all of it) does not realize it, the vicious circle (it is not virtuous at all) keeps turning and the sport is slowly disappearing...

Returning to the Guatán, the unknown will be whether Ataka can handle the heavy 62 kilos she must carry, the maximum of the group. The daughter of Señor Candy from Stud Puey is overly generous and is going through an ideal moment.

Her last two appearances ended in victories, always on the Palermo dirt. First, she conquered the Handicap El Centauro, and then took the Handicap Carapálida, when she defeated Rumba Feroz (Hurricane Cat) by 1 1/2 lengths.

The main enemy for Ataka is Rollanda (Bodemeister, 56), always well-regarded and who is still owed a victory at the upper level. As her most recent background, she brings a second-place finish 1 1/2 lengths behind Mi Negra Paula (Reflecting) in the Especial Badruddin, over the same track and distance in which she will compete now.

La Campioneta (Il Campione, 56) has been running well, and after two conditional wins, she achieved a more than acceptable fourth place in the Handicap Tintilla, over the Palermo kilometer and in the line of the streaking Tormenta China (Malenchini). Now she returns to the distance of her last success, and that is a point in her favor.

Expert Advice (Il Campione, 56) remains in debt, as much more has always been expected of her, while Winning Wind (Endorsement, 58) brings 2 consecutive victories from La Plata and now takes a leap in level seeking to continue the streak.