Quote:
Originally Posted by burnsy
Good (physically and mentally strong) horses are becoming harder to come by. Only one horse made all three legs, Looking At Lee. Different horses hit the board in all three races, 9 different horses hit the board. Making races 2 and 3 weeks apart is seeming more and more like a problem. There have been exceptions in recent years but they are rare.
The weekend offered some really great racing, Belmont is on to something with the festival but the Triple Crown itself is kind of hype of hype now, when there are results like this and the lack of participation pretty much guarantees these results. The horses are actually showing the physical signs of not making it. American Pharoah is looking more and more like a freak or an Iron Horse compared to the modern 3 yo. I'm not a horse expert, I've been around them and know them, I'm more of a math, statistics and social science type person..............they have to take a look at the logistics of the Triple Crown in the near future. Don't ask Burnsy, ask a few of these trainers. I just look at the stats and sociology.
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One other thing about American Pharoah-- and his crop.
AP ran the second half of his Belmont just as fast as the first half (1:13 and change, plus 1:13 and change, for a 2:26 and change Belmont). We are seeing a lot of 2:29 and 2:30 Belmonts as the horses get dead tired (look at the gallop out on Saturday, those horses are POOPED!). AP was a rare modern horse with plenty of stamina.
And his crop looks better too. He won the Belmont by 6 lengths, so the second place horse ran 2:27 and change. Frosted and Keen Ice were both nice horses running behind him. Dortmund was pretty good too.
AP is going to look better and better as the years go by (something I also say about Zenyatta and all the hate against her-- we are going to go decades before a filly or mare so much as runs second in the BC Classic once).
