Retrospective on Birdstone

[BeatTheChalk]

To be fair...the horse won the Champaigne stakes and was
highly regarded coming into the 3 year old season. He won an
Allowance Race....and Then .. caught Two off tracks..with
trouble in both races. The breeding was there .. but he was a
tuff hoss to figure. He was the only Horse of his generation..
highly touted .. and a winner of a Big Stakes race.... to make it
to the Belmont. All of the others went by the wayside. And nope
despite Larry King's efforts I didnt have the exacta.

[Tom]

He was 2yo punk. Matured ahead of his classz, beat up on the littler kids.
Come this year, he is no longer the big kid, gets beat by crap. His trainer whines like a little girl...they screwed up the track...boo hoo.
Can't even put shoes on him.
Not the stuff of champions. Black eye for racing, in my book.

[BeatTheChalk]

Not to belabor a point ..
The horse won the Champaigne. No matter what or who ..he
won it. Now he comes to the 3 yr old season. Wins an allowance
race and catches 2 off tracks. Are we supposed to judge him
harshly because of the circumstances he was put into ?
His breeding is superb .. bred to be any kind. I really dont think
that "Punk" is the operative word here. I will end my discussion
of this topic and move on to the next case .. .. .. ..

[Tom]

"punk" was the word I settled on after reviewing PA's rules for posting !:D

[KingChas]

Come on guys the horse(Birdstone) doesn't know what he did.He was trained to win.When the TC winner comes ,he will come.It wasn't meant to be. Kindalike the weather forecast this week.Then Ex Pres dying right before Belmont ,(HEADLINES)things didn't seem right.Why didn't Smarty pull away?Meant to be.He's still a great horse.He'll be back.We must accept fate and move on.

[John]

RIGHT CHARLES....IT"S OVER AND IN THE REAL WORLD OF HANDICAPPERS " IT"S JUST ANOTHER RACE."

John

[kenwoodallpromos]

Elliot said SJ relaxed during the race; Servis said Sj was not relaxed for 3 weeks + this race.

[CryingForTheHorses]

Im just wondering if anyone saw the part where SJ was cooling out after the race!! Did any of you notice...SJ was on the nod!!..aka...sore walking

[kenwoodallpromos]

Maybe that is why Servis and others kept looking into his stall before the race. You do not expect them the scratch the biggest thing in racing since Seabisciut, do you? Probably the same left rear my imagination saw walking from the barn.
Thought I saw the tail leaning left once also.

[Tom]

Sartin players....
using best of last three, you had Birdbath in your contenders.
How did the Sartin programs see the race?
First year in many I did use K-Gen / T-mation to do the race.

[CryingForTheHorses]

Did anyone tape the whole race even after the race was run???..Would love to look very closely at the horse coolng out,They showed him in a area with a fence with all the people watching..If you watch..ou will see him nod...also looked like he had tied up (Muscle stiffness)...I feel Smarty may have come out of the race sore...

[BeatTheChalk]

I did not see it .. but as I watched the race..he didnt seem to
have the fluid motion that I would have expected. Perhaps Mr
Bailey did his appointed task .. Keeping SJ from winning the
race with obvious tactics. Whether Solis was in on the game..
I dont know. What I do know is that RHT had absolutely no
chance to win .. the way Solis was riding him. I guess we will
never know for sure. It was pretty obvious to me . ..The
" front runners " backed right out of it before they hit the far
turn. All of the above is In My humble opinion of course.

[Turf2Dirt]

I have a keen eye in watching for soreness before a race. in the paddock, and in the post-parade. I do it everyday at my local track and every morning during the gallops.

Smarty Jones did NOT show any sign of soreness before the race,

afterward, I don't know, I didn't get a chance to see him

[Hammerhead]

In defense of Birdstone He was 2nd pick to Smarty in The Magican way of playing so I had the exacta and win. I bet Mike don't know that yet, unless he redid the lines.

[sevenall]

Hammerhead- your right, "Birdstone" had the second highest PPF based on Michael Pizzola's Master Magician software.

The program marked the rating from the Champagne as "aberrant". The same program had him as the third choice in the Kentucky Derby (just behind Smarty Jones on top and Lion Heart tied Birdstone for second).

A question for any TMM users..........why was the +7 PPF in the Derby ratings for Birdstone not aberrant....but the +1 was designated that way in the Belmont?

[Hammerhead]

I got the cheepo version so I did not notice it was wrong.

Aberation or whatever. I do not pay that much attention to some of these does and don'ts