Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Valuist
I was very underwhelmed by the Florida Derby. Orb did a nice job of overcoming a slow pace but the rest of the field isn't much. Itsmyluckyday had no excuse, and the 3rd and 4th place runners likely will never win an Ohio or Indiana Derby. As for Shanghai Bobby, if he couldn't hold on at 1 1/16 miles at GP, with the short run to the turn and the short stretch run, he has no chance at longer distances. Point him toward the Met Mile and the BC Mile.
|
Man this stuff just irritates the heck out of me. SB gets the 1st post in the Holy Bull and is urged to the lead because of that post position, then gets caught by a track record winner, and all of a sudden he can't go 1 1/16m, and certainly not longer?
In the FD, again in the 1st post, which I have watched over and over the last couple of days, shortly after the break, Rosie's head turns to the right, she sees the 3 and the eventual pace setter coming over and almost immediately stood up in the saddle and SB's head comes up. I didn't notice that until today. Rosie obviously saw what was fixing to happen and she made the conscious decision to not go for the lead. I finally found a statement by Pletcher where he said they made the decision, before the race, that they would not send SB early, I assume because of what happened in the Holy Bull. That made Rosie's decision easy, let SB get hemmed in on the rail. That, IMO, was the move that prevented SB from having any kind of chance at all, not that he would have won the race if he'd been on the lead (we'll never know that, either way), but when you put an early horse on the rail, in very close quarters, and behind a slow pace, you are putting him in a very stressful position. As we all know, stress can be just as tiring as a fast pace. I attribute SD's lack of kick to, either needing a rest, or to that early, and continuing, close quarters stress behind a slow pace (24 and change).
I may be wrong, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see SB in a classic distance race, at some point in the future.
