Scanning the pages... I feel less bad about not cashing the 2013 Derby.
How the hell did Golden Soul finish 2nd in the Kentucky Derby? That has to be one of the worst long term sheets for a Classic placer and consistent Graded Stakes entrant I have ever seen. Poor fella needs some class relief.
In my view, sometimes the reality is outside the nine dots of a sheet, the #\'s on the sheet and or the pattern of those numbers.
While I do not disagree with your assessment of the horse. In 2013 the race included a pace meltdown. As is typical of a meltdown race only the horses that were not in the race for the 1st mile emerge as competitors in the last quarter.
IMO, Golden Soul was/is not a competitor it\'s a survivor. Needing of class relief. Absolutely. Yet the facts are it ran 2nd in the Kentucky Derby won lots of money for its owners. Paid big in the parimutuels because, virtually no body liked its chances based on past performances.
The mystery in this years KD is the pace and the speed of the race. The simplistic (raw time) view is it was slow.
Yet one point of view could be, based on results, the pace cooked all the contenders (except the winner) whose style was to run anywhere near the pace leaving the minor placings to the survivor types. Those runners which methodologies claim are fast because of ground loss inflation. Therefore one group will love the lesser placed horses going forward and another group will discount them greatly.
Social Inclusion in the Preakness is significant for all involved, even ROC whom big hat trainer may end up wishing he\'d kept Borel.