Quote:
Originally Posted by PICSIX
Jose did not ride to win, he rode to keep Justify from winning and that strategy got him a 4th place finish. Since when has it become a good strategy to take on the proven speed of speed with a non-speed horse, taking that horse out of it's comfort zone??
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In fairness to Jose he had just had a front row seat on Title Ready to Mike Smith and Ax Man's unchallenged front running win in the Sir Barton. Been there, done that.
Good Magic's only shot at winning was to engage Justify and the fractions were reasonable. Ortiz surely would have preferred more of an outside pressing type situation but didn't have the luxury of sacrificing his position, especially considering what had shown to be a speed favoring surface on most all prior races.
