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IMO, the only way he's not going to the Classic is if they were expecting a much sharper performance yesterday and he's not working well over the next few weeks. Then they won't run anywhere.
Last year was different. He hadn't been beyond a mile yet or faced the very best older horses. At the time, facing Knicks Go at 9F in the Pegasus after taking on better in the Dirt Mile seemed to make more sense than stretching a 1/4 mile and taking on tougher in one shot. Maybe it was more cautious than some people would have liked, but it was a more logical progression.
The interesting thing is that I haven't heard Baffert make a single comment questioning this horse's ability to get 10F. He praised him again in recent comments when talking about the Classic.
Every time people bring up Dubai to Pletcher he says it was a very deep and slow track that day and he thinks that was a factor in him tiring. I didn't see much evidence the surface was impacting the results that day or had a huge impact in that race going longer, but if he's worried about 10F he's not letting on publicly because he's been consistent in his story. I think he's more concerned about Flightline just being a better horse.
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Last edited by classhandicapper; 10-02-2022 at 03:35 PM.
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