Brilliant call on Commissioner going to the front.
Amen! I wish I had listened to you instead of Bruno who didn\'t like his works. But it doesn\'t matter, since I would\'ve never played Tonalist.
Ken
Why would you like Commissioner and not Tonalist who handled him easily in the Peter Pan?
Thanks guys
Today was nice
Like getting a birdie on the 18th (something I never do), today will keep me coming back
Good day at the windows??
My day was more like lipping out a birdie putt on the 18th hole when I had a chance to finally break 80 for the first time. I was all in on Commissioner and also had the dollar trifecta and the pick 3 ending in the 12th five times. Congrats Jim if you had that one, I know you liked Commissioner also.
Good crowd at Santa Anita today- all expecting to see a Triple Crown. Kinda quiet when it didn\'t happen.
I actually couldn\'t catch a cold all day (literally) until the big race
I hit that tri pretty good (keyed medal count with the others I liked and threw CC out all together again which finally worked after costing me the last two times) and had the pick 4. Both would have been better if Commissioner had held on but I ain\'t complaining.
I felt like my year long defense of Commish was vindicated which was nice and I had mentioned that I didn\'t care for the connections of CC so I was happy they exposed themselves for what they are. We had some dealings with them when we tried to buy the horse back in Jan so we knew what they were all about and I\'m glad the whole world got to see that for themselves.
I saw Commish as possibly this year\'s version of a big Belmont jump-up (Commendable, Da Tara, Birdstone, etc), strictly on breeding. I didn\'t think Tonalist had another move-up in him, especially after someone posted here that he was working in bar shoes.
Jim,
Really enjoy your contributions to this board and respect your opinion. I was utterly gobsmacked when you made a negative comment - in your typical low-key and classy manner - about the connections of Chrome. From up here in the cheap seats in middle America they seemed like a great story, good for the game, the little guys make good, classic American Dream stuff. Boy oh boy were you right. Can\'t get any more graceless in defeat than that. Wow. Wow. That was beyond embarrassing, a cringe-fest for the ages.
Speaking of respecting your opinion...
I was at a Belmont party today, and put together a small syndicate. Most attendees just wanted to watch and root for CC so we didn\'t have as much to play with as we usually do at these parties.
Spent about a third of it chasing Somali Lemonade in the Just A Game and if she just could have hung on for second we\'re in good shape, but no complaints, the filly ran her lungs out. and the price was square. Was worried the Pletcher might push her a little too hard early, and she did; was just hoping that one wouldn\'t run a step over turf.
Anyway, I actually talked the few partners into skipping the next two, which worked out well considering I loved Normandy Invasion and didn\'t have a strong opinion in the Manhattan.
Dinner got served around 6:00 and the partners basically locked me into my buddy\'s computer room and told me not to come out after I\'d come up with the play.
Was perusing the pp\'s, seemed like there wasn\'t much speed in there, so I figured the deep closers might be up against it.
I wandered over to the TG board. As soon as I did, your post about Commissioner going to the lead came back to me.
I started looking over his pp\'s...I could excuse the flop in the GP stakes, he didn\'t break, the track was playing to speed, it was early in the season...the next race was definitely better, and then came the trip to OP...I looked at that line over and over, just awful...kept coming back to the \"fractious\" comment...toss that one, the Peter Pan wasn\'t bad...seemed like value there off of a bad race two races ago...my wife came in and brought me a fresh beer....not that she knows any better, but I said to her, honey, this horse has four horses showing here on his breeding, and three of \'em won the Belmont...
Anyway, I made us a $50 win bet on Commissioner, $10 exactas with him over Medal Count, Chrome, and Tonalist...$1 tri key with him and Chrome on top adding Medal Count and Tonalist for 2nd, over all for third...$2 exactas reversing the $10\'s....I didn\'t get the bets in until right at post time, and I came out of the computer room, no one even knew the race was about to go off, we got \'em in....
Well, even the partners didn\'t know the bets I\'d put in, and 80% of the people there just wanted to see Chrome win...as he faded they all looked at me funny because at about the 1/8th pole I just lost my shit and started screaming bloody murder for the Commish to hang on...
Alas...just wait \'til next year!
PapaChach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, even the partners didn\'t know the bets I\'d
> put in, and 80% of the people there just wanted to
> see Chrome win...as he faded they all looked at me
> funny because at about the 1/8th pole I just lost
> my @#$%& and started screaming bloody murder for
> the Commish to hang on...
>
> Alas...just wait \'til next year!
Chach, you never disappoint. Great story.
Jim:
Can you imagine if Rosie doesn\'t press with no shot A-Rod?!!?!!
Good Luck,
Joe B.
Belmont pathetically weak against the clock. Nothing fast about it,early,middle or late.When 5 horses finish within 2 lengths of each other at 12f,it\'s a sign of slowwwww.First Fig is like a TG 1 or 2.Update, Beyer 100, bit generous
Chrome tried gallantly and had a shot turning for home while completely empty.Tonalist grinded unimpressively to the wire while Commissioner stayed on late,looked to be off the board turning for home,saved by live inside and pathetic last quarter.
Finally off Bayern, he runs a hole in the wind,runs fig of the day along with PM in Met.
Closed Hatches game, Beholder on the empty side, Sylmar no excuse with dead aim.
Are there any fast grass horses in this country besides Wise Dan?
Miff its a 1 or 2 for the Winner, that would be a pair and about pair for the runnerup. I thought the winner ran really well. After putting away Chrome he was angle over to the rail and took dead aim and bested his target on the line. No doubt the best horse won.
Keep your eye on Jack Milton and War Dancer on the grass. Both came out of the same Gulfstream debut race a year ago January. Point of Entry was still relatively unknown at this point in his career and same for Wise Dan.
Sure was a great call. Peltcher said back in Jan that this was his Belmont horse. To bad I tossed the winner had 2nd and 3rd...
Congrats on a nice hit.
Agree that by-the-clock the race was nothing special, but the winner ran big.
If the Beyer is close to right, Tonalist has to get much better then a 2. Looked-like six-wide going into the first turn, while Covissioner saved ground most of the way around. I think Tonalist and Sweet reason were the only ones to pass on the outside in the deep stretch all day, and the latter had a ground saving trip in hers.
Much the best.
Edit: Trakus has Tonalist 60+ feet farther than The place and show horses.
AJ,
Running big but slow counter-intuitive. Ground loss could save Tonalist fig.Is losing ground while travelling slowly around a turn as relevant as losing ground while travelling fast around the turn? I don\'t believe that, yet the adjustment for ground loss is the same, fast or slow.
Agree,Tonalist ran the fastest race by any measuring stick.
Mike