In the chart for the Belmont it has Animal Kingdom fifth only a length and a half back at the stretch call. This has to be an error. It appeared to me that he was much further out of it at that point which I would assume should be at 1 3/8 miles into the race with only 1/8 mile to go.
Did anyone else notice this? I don\'t think he ever got that close to the lead.
The chart says he reached contention at the 3/8 pole and failed to sustain his bid and that I will agree with. Velazquez comments after the race were that he had no chance after the incident and yet he did get into contention with 3/8 to 1/4 mile to go.
I personally think he probably only would have been fourth without the incident at the start. He didn\'t look good to me for most of the stretch run.
Did JV move him too early?
Believe it or not, AK was only 2 lengths behind at the 3/16 pole. He very quickly flattened out from there, but had already done quite a bit rallying wide on the turn, against what looked like an inside bias.
Here\'s the pic
http://imageshack.us/f/96/belmontstakestssnapshot.jpg/
Actually, if they are supposed to be taking that call at the 1/8 pole, he was at least 4 or more lengths behind the leader. So you may be correct. The 1/2 length on BS should be 3 1/2.
I used to catch lots of these errors back in the day, at least a few a week per track. Sometimes it was the Final Call ;-)
My original thought was that the start didn\'t have a huge impact, but if he\'d gotten a better trip , stayed inside, he might have been quite a bit closer at the wire. Win? Who knows.