GP surface on Fla Derby day

[Valuist]

Litfin has an interesting piece in Sat.'s DRF how several trainers questioned the maintanence of the surface for the Florida Derby. Litfin said he thought there was some truth to the claims after watching the replay and then the replay of the Skip Away Handicap later in the day. The race was run with a fast pace and a curiously slow finish; slower final time than Suave ran a NW1X in. Tapit finished well back but then came back to win the Wood and The Cliffs Edge also came out of the race to win the Blue Grass last weekend. Usually every year has one real "key" prep. Ironically, the one horse nobody is talking about is the winner of that race, Friends Lake.

[delayjf]

In a previous post, it was noted that GP was haveing problems with their race timer again. Anybody know if this was caught by the sheet players.

[andicap]

should have been since they use hand-timers

[Valuist]

I occasionally check the TG board. Didn't see anything on it although I don't read every single post.

[cj]

Just my opinion, the race had a fast pace, they came home slow.

3/13 GP Fast Florida Derby-G1 1 1/8m Friends Lake 108 91

I know people have said it is false due to the return races of The Cliff's Edge and Tapit.

Let's look at these two:
THE CLIFF'S EDGE fractious in the gate, broke to the inside, was steadied slightly entering the first turn, saved ground while advancing into contention around the far turn, bumped with TAPIT in early stretch, eased out finished willingly for the show.

The trip was bad, and this was only second start off a layoff, and the first was basically a non-effort.

TAPIT tracked the pace three wide, was caught in tight on the far turn, was still in contention when he bumped with THE CLIFF'S EDGE in early stretch and tired.

Another bad trip, and first start off a longer layoff. Notice how close he was to the early pace, very fresh horse.

Basically, no way these horses were geared up to run well on Fla Derby day.

Looking back on what the horses have done since, all the horses, the Fla Derby figures make sense.