Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
I'm not going to change my view of what he was, but he imo he isn't the horse many thought he might become, at least yet. He's gone backward instead of forward so far.
A horse's last race may or may not mean anything. They all throw in a clinker once in awhile or have some kind of excuse. But part of the evaluation of where to spot a horse is what it has shown overall and at its best. At his best, Art Collector was a horse that was winning 2nd tier preps in times that made him look like a contender in the Derby. Since then, some of the 3yos have moved forward and some of the older horses were simply better than his peak.
His absolute best race would have put him up the track in the Classic. For him to have any shot, not only would have to rebound from whatever caused the subpar performance in the Preakness (injury or otherwise), he would have had to run a massive new top. IMO, running there would have been a horrible idea. As it was, his best didn't even look good enough to win the Mile. It made him a contender if he returned to form and inched forward.
I have no view on where his form goes from here, but I think chasing Knicks Go on that track was no easy take for a horse of his ability and I trust he probably bled.
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Re the bolded part, I think at the top levels of the game that has changed. Trainers are so picky now about the spots they pick for good horses that if something doesn't go right, it is usually a bad sign. The same can be said for when horses start missing races originally mapped out by the trainer. I count these kinds of things as much more negative than I did 10 or 15 years ago.
