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[classhandicapper]

Casse said he was going to go after Always Dreaming, but I think the level of aggressiveness cost them the race. IMO, it was totally unnecessary to push Always Dreaming in a 23 - 46 4/5 pace to accomplish his goal of keeping Always Dreaming honest.

There were a handful of possible outcomes doing it the way they did it.

1. You find out you have the inferior horse, lose the battle, and wind up blowing positions and cost yourself money.

2. You find out you have the better horse, win the battle, soften yourself up in the process, and lose the race (perhaps even more than one position).

3. You find out you are so superior, you could put the other horse away, and still beat the other horses despite softening yourself up.

Given his tactics yesterday, his only way to win was scenario #3. That's not a high probability scenario. The result was scenario #2.

IMO, the better option was to stalk Always Dreaming in a more moderate way and engage him on the 2nd turn without getting into a head to head battle earlier.

Then, if he's better than you he would have beaten you anyway, but you'll probably keep second.

If you are better than him you'll get to him on the turn and wear him down for the win.

Is there anyone that thinks Classic Empire was not clearly the best horse yesterday?