Tiago Pereira on Zillinda, big favorite in the 1st on April 26 at Santa Anita.
Nothing dramatic here. He just took the 6-5 favorite 4 wide on the first turn and 3 wide on the second turn. This is what I call the "Cigar ride", because Jerry Bailey used to do it when Cigar was 10 lengths better than the other horses he was facing. The ground loss didn't matter.
The problem is most horses aren't Cigar, and ground loss matters. Zillinda lost by a neck in the end to Shanghai Barbie, whom she was unable to run down in the stretch after running so much farther than Shanghai Barbie did. She was probably 4 lengths the best horse.
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