IWC
 

Well...

I thought the ride was questionable.

Looks like he took the bad part of the track, and also made a premature move a la Kent Desormeaux on Real Quiet.

Anyway, whatever the case may be, looks like a rider change is in order a la Garret Gomez and Lookin at Lucky.

I mean someone has to take the fall.

I have an idea... How about looking at the race as if Tapwrit weren't in it.... Nothing wrong with IWC or the ride and he'll most certainly get a nice figure.

It's not always win/lose, black/white.

Those 2 opened up on the field.

Agree, not the rider's fault. Up to the Belmont the track was playing fast so his early fractions were justified. He just got beat by a horse who just was a bit better at 12 furlongs.

Nobody got a particularly good figure as the final time was awful and this is a very 2nd string group of a not very good 3YO crop.

IWC was the fastest 3 year old coming in (on the sheets anyways)...

Don't see how the race doesn't get a big figure... It went a full second faster than the Brooklyn and they carried 11 more lbs than War Story (who had big figures to run back to).

On TimeFormUS IWC's figure did not match the figures of AD in the Derby or CE in the Preakness.
I quess figure makers can vary.

Belmont strip was pretty slick that day as evidenced by the winning time of the Met Mile, yet the winning times of both the Bklyn and Belmont were some of the worst ever. Maybe that first turn in the 12 furlong races was a killer?

They were adding a LOT of water to the track starting mid day. I have no idea if that impacted the times, but the moisture content of the track was different at the end of the day than it was at the start.

I thought it was pretty hard pace, but not amazing. Meantime is a good horse, in spite of sweating out pre-race, and eventually stopping. Meantime did pressure Irish War Cry a bit.

Between Meantime and the guys like Ortiz on Tapwrit waiting for an opportunity to present itself like a perfect predator, Maragh eventually passed the point of no return.
I don't think the cowboy antics of the loose horse affected the pace or entered Maragh's peripheral vision.

Eventually, Irish War Cry was tiring on the far turn, and I think Maragh wisely opted for taking tactical position and assuring an top-2 finish, rather than trying to 'save' horse and kick away from bunching-up rivals.

That was a race (both generally and specific) where unless everything up front is absolutely stopping, you have to be contending on the far turn, or by the time you enter the stretch you notice that your stalking position was an optical illusion.

Tapit had a more comfortable trip, and was just as good as Irish War Cry.

I can't fault Maragh and split hairs. He did about as well as expected.

Well said!

I agree. He got IWC to match his previous top in the Wood.