Edit: My previous post was unclear as to what horses I was sometimes referring to. The correct post should have read:
His improving figures and performances indicate he is turning it around. It would have taken Secretariat to not lose ground in the JCGC after attending that toxic pace. You can't just look at the stretch run in a vacuum in isolation of what preceded it. The further you are from a nuclear blast, the better your chances of surviving it.
Put a line through Mendelssohn's Derby non-race and he is also on his 3rd race off the lay-off.
The reason Thunder Snow ran as well as he did in the JVGC was that he lay back off that pace and closed on horses that had run killer sprint fractions. Had he played the setter/presser role he would have tired badly - much worse than Mendy or Diversify. Just look at the pace analysis. The winner, Discreet Lover, benefited even more from the pace by laying even further off it. Having said that, I like TS's chances too. He showed he could adapt to whatever pace he was facing and, like Mendy, is cycling up to a top figure.
Last edited by bobphilo; 10-15-2018 at 07:52 PM.
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