Quote:
Originally Posted by Spalding No!
The Sunland Park Derby had a contentious pace that saw one colt (Bronze Age) burned beyond recognition and a maiden (Irap) and a second string colt (Hedge Fund) floundering at the top of the lane. I'm not going to give Hence props for being able to rally past those.
He's a colt that took over 5 months to break its maiden, with all sorts of problems in its running lines ("green", "stumbled start", "shifted out", "ducked in sharply", "awkward start"). He made absolutely no impression at any point in the Southwest, one of the highest rated preps of the season.
Meanwhile, the Sunland Park Derby was one of the lowest rated preps of the season, with the slowest final figure from CJs chart of any 3yo race run on a fast main track.
Wait for the turf.
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You are entirely missing the point. Yes a pace scenario where they duel up front favors off pace horses. But only the talented can come home in fast time when stalking that fast pace. A quality that is a must for any off pace horse in the Kentucky Derby.
Horses that are bred towards stamina are not necessarily the most precocious so I don't regard how long he took to break his maiden as a major drawback. Running better races as distances get longer is far more important than precocity.
Other than your bottom paragraph you have some real simple minded interpretations of events.