Here is an example from today fridays 5th at Santa Anita. The 4-5 favorite Eternally Fast finished 2nd beaten half a length on Oct 30 at SA for a claiming price of 50,000. Kept away for seven weeks he surfaced for 32,000 at HOL. on Dec 19. He wired his field over a very glib surface winning by four lengths. Off of that performance he would appear to have been capable of stepping up and repeating against 40 or 50k company, or perhaps even a first level allowance. This is assuming that he was sound. The gap between races and the double class drop raised the first flag. The second went up because the claiming price in todays race for 3yr. olds is 25,000. He is dropping again one level after an impressive win against tougher. After a tough trip from his outside post Eternally Fast did manage to finish 2nd, but he did lose the race. On paper, his speed and pace figs were much the best, but those two drops in a row after good races told us that this runner may not have been completely sound.
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