I think the one thing that was SO obvious that everyone agrees, is that Flo hustled his mount up there and then thought “Oh shit!” when it became apparent he was about to take the lead from Justify and get into a dual.
So his immediate reaction was to make sure that didn’t happen, and that was to take the horse wide.
Yes, bad optics, and yes, it was protecting Justify, I just doubt Flo was going along with a master plan of Baffert’s with that move.
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