Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
Pharoah 105 - 102 -105
For the record, I argued that Beyer had the 12 furlong races too slow on Belmont day for Pharoah/Coach Inge and I think the same thing is true for Hoppy and Justify.
I'm not buying that a horse like Hoppertunity who is a solid Grade 2 horse that runs figures in the 100-105 range on his best days and looks like he relishes 12F ran a 98 yesterday in victory or that a horse like War Story who looked razor sharp coming into this race and won it last year with a 102, ran second with a 95. I'm just not buying that was a well below PAR effort and field going 12F.
The 3yos are always more problematical because you can't tell who is going to want to go that far and if they are moving forward in a more general way as they mature. But If Justify is only a 101, that means several of these horses are going backwards instead of forward or didn't like the 12F.
I think it's way more likely Hoppy matched the top of his range at 104,War Story ran 101 finishing 2nd, and Justify matched his peak of 107 loose on the lead again like in the SA Derby than having regressed from earlier in the season. Some of these 3yos looked like they were bred well for 12F and they should generally be moving forward. I would not be surprised if horses like Hofburg, Vino Russo, and Tenfold moved forward from previous bests and have narrowed the gap a little on Justify who made need a rest before breaking out to a new top.
|
I am with you here.
Chad Brown did nothing all day except for the Raving Beauty shipper's 2nd out (and boy were both dandy, glad I had him), then ran 2nd off a bad break; gotta give it to Gronk, he pulled a Euro shipper on dirt performance we rarely see.
