The sheets keyed me onto MY COUSIN MATT as capable of running a huge # off of his recent turf race.
As I mentioned on Friday, you only needed to go back to his 3yo campaign to see that MCM ran a huge lifetime best in a sprint at Saratoga off of a turf effort.
That \"the rat\" Jerry Bailey caught me in the final strides for second (costing me approx $9,500 score) does not take away the value of this product. My DRF carrying buddies were amazed as there was no evidence of any such angle within the pages of the form.
AND NOW THE ONE QUESTION: After watching GHOSTZAPPER display why he is one of the best horses to run in the last 10 years, what exactly did they feed SAINT LIAM that morning when he ran GZ to a head in the Woodward???
Good Luck,
Joe B.
I dont want to rehash the whole saint liam thing again,
but going to ghostzapper,
This colt seems very althletic and agile, he is good anywhere at any distance, but in my opinion the best place to beat him (if possible) is going to be at Belmont at a 1 1/4, as it negates a bit of that athleticism. I think two turns, alot like Azeri, he moves way up.
Saddlecloth wrote:
> I dont want to rehash the whole saint liam thing again,
>
> but going to ghostzapper,
>
> This colt seems very althletic and agile, he is good anywhere
> at any distance, but in my opinion the best place to beat him
> (if possible) is going to be at Belmont at a 1 1/4, as it
> negates a bit of that athleticism. I think two turns, alot
> like Azeri, he moves way up.
It\'s hard argue against Ghostzappers B.C. Classic performance, but I\'m going to. Firstly, despite a few off pace efforts, I\'ve concluded pace or near pace was the place to be. Near rail was also not a bad placement. (By that I dont mean on rail) For a race of this quality, on a track clearly quick, I thought the pace was soft: 23.42, 47.00, 1:11.32, 1:35.38, 1:59.02. I did not anticipate that. Perhaps I should have. Azeri broke poorly and really isn\'t a 10 mark mare anyway and Roses in May was trying it for the first time. With hindsight you can conclude they weren\'t gonna force it with distance an issue. I also expected Funny Cide to be pressing from a length back. It all never happened. I don\'t think the strip was particularly kind to closers. Especially out from the rail closers.
The hero is built like a sprinter. He had his day in the sun Saturday, but you can bet I\'ll be gunning for him in the right circumstances next time. I think he\'s cheating as well.
CtC
CtC,
The pace was average to below average. I don\'t think that is really disputable. But not truely \"soft\".
I looked at the charts several times and I don\'t see a bias on the main track. I don\'t proclaim to be \'the\' expert on bias, but I don\'t see it. Several \"inside out\" trips won. Frankel thought the rail was dead and instructed Castellano accordingly. I think the track was pretty unbiased.
He came home in 23.3 at the end of a 1 1/4 mile horse, all under what was mostly a handride. Castellano was pumping his fists 100 yards before the finish. Only real serious racehorses come home in 23.3 on the dirt in distance races.
Forget about his build. At this point that is pretty irrelevant. He jogged a -6.5 at Monmouth, repeated it while being pushed incredibly wide at Belmont under SERIOUS pace pressue and then dusted them on Saturday going 1 1/4.
The book is closed on Ghostzapper being \"real\" or not. He is for real and he is real fast.
Of course, under the right circumstances, at the right price, anybody can be bet against. So maybe next year, you will get that opportunity. But from what we\'ve seen this year, it would be hard to bet with confidence against that horse.
I\'m very familiar with a sub 24 last quarter. GZ came home in 23:64. RIM came home in 24:04. These were the two pace setters coming home like this. The others went wide and no one closed better. It was a result of a couple things. If some want to believe they\'ve witnessed the second coming of Dr. Fager good. Let\'s see the new Doc run with a tad more backstretch security. I\'d settle for a legit pace.
CtC
\"Tad more backstretch security\".
So, the security in the backstretch kept Frankel from \"juicing\" Megaherz, Light Jig, Midas Eyes, Cajun Beat, Nothing to Lose (or even Snorter in the first race).
But miraculously, Ghostzapper was not stopped.
If Frankel had won 2, then both of those would have been drugged.
The guy is 2 for 61 (or thereabout) and finally wins one and of course it must be fixed.
How much the pace helped him is certainly debatable. I would argue any horse can be beaten by pace and poor judgement by the jockey. Even Dr. Fager.
The soft pace certainly didn\'t hurt Ghostzapper, but the pace was not so slow as to give everyone else no chance. RIM was right there early. Ghost skipped away from him and he skipped away from everyone else.
This horse is the real deal.
He should have only one loss. His loss at Saratoga in the 7F sprint last year was a heavily biased inside speed track. He was tons the best that day too closing from heaven on the far outside.
Anyone can get beat, but had the pace been faster on Saturday he would have rated off it and still crushed them. The only way he would have gotten beat is if the pace was super extremely fast and he laid just off it and got used up by being too close. Then someone might have nailed him late...but only if they got the bob. :-)