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I think Honor AP is a very good horse. What he lacks is turnkey acceleration. He takes long fluid strides and slowly outruns and wears down other horses.
That said, I'm not sure how anyone can criticize his performance in the Derby.
He got out a little slow, got bumped, and because of the way he runs was slow to get going. He dropped way too far back. He's normally a more forwardly placed horse. Without that start, I think he probably would have been midpack.
After that he lost a ton of ground.
I don't think racing outside was much of a problem Derby day, but his ground loss was extreme enough to think it didn't help him make up all the ground he had to make up after the rough start.
Admittedly, I'm not smart enough to translate that trip into exact lengths, but I feel confident saying that had he gotten out of the gate well, got position midpack, and lost a little less ground because of the better position, he would have been right in the thick of it at the end instead of clunking up for 4th.
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