Ax Man
 

That was a disappointing effort.

He was off a step slow and used a bit to get into the race while wide into the first turn (which is never a good setup), but he stopped so badly it's hard to be encouraged.

His last work looked terrible on paper and workout reports were not good. I'm the last guy to ask about workouts but a few people pointed it out to me before the race.

Take it for what its worth....he is a bit nutty, combine that with being challenged on the distance side of things, if Baffert can get him good sprinting that would be a nice career.

Talk about the Preakness and Belmont were completely premature.

He's got more of a sprinters stride. Also not as smooth-striding as a great horse, nor as physically outstanding as a Justify or Arrogate.

However, he's been on an excellent program and thriving. It's easy to get excited.

You had another fairly good horse what's his name who was injured... is it Mickinzie? and then you had the flawed Solomini who can't surge into a turn or change leads 75% of the time and in spite of major flaws he was at times a fringe division leader... Restoring Hope is a little bit cheap, but he looks like a linebacker and has stirred up some excitement after the occasional impressive workout or allowance performance.

Some of these guys wouldn't be stakes horses, or even successful allowance types had they not been under the tutelage of a master like Baffert.

It seems like you can get a horse into freakish stamina over a good pace, but you can't fix inherent flaws or survive pressure with all of them. At that point you have to find a niche. The Justifys' and Arrogates and Pharoahs are more complete naturally and their impressive abilities translate better to the higher classes and competitive races.


Ax Man wasn't my pick to win the Haskell or Travers, but he was the logical next-up for Justify, should Justify be retired/freshened.

I think there is a casim between McKinzie and Ax Man in terms of talent, I forgot about McKinzie in another thread, major oversight.

Solomini just is average, his second in the BC as you state is more to do with his trainer.

seemed pretty good. I think he may have even been Baffert's 'A' 3yo before Justify won the spot and McKinzie dealt with injuries...

Lots of inferior performances at CD last night - Ax Man, World Approval, Irish War Cry.

Does the Foster card always go at night at CD?

Baffert said before the race Ax is not a good shipper. Guess he was right.

Lately it has.

Ax Man had been at Churchill since his last start over a month ago, so for all intents and purposes he ran out of his own stall.

That's what i thought. Really there was no excuse, other than the poor workout leading up to the race. Baffert is usually careful about running horses off subpar breezes. I know he wouldn't have put him on a plane and ship off a poor work. Have to give him a mulligan on that one..

Yeah. My CD source says they have a huge marketing campaign around it as a Saturday night at the races and it is their biggest moneymaker of the entire year other than Derby/Oaks week.

I thought it was odd they didn't shoot for a bigger spot for Ax Man. Now we see why.

Thanks dude:headbanger: