Maybe its time to begin giving this horse his due. He ran a little faster than the Brooklyn. He finished it off in some pretty splits and fished with style.
I hope everyone did well today. This was a whatever can go wrong will go wrong day for me. Crushed like a grape but no sour grapes. And hey I got to see a Triple Crown Winner....and that\'s a good thing!!
6th fastest Belmont Stakes ever.
1. Secretariat | 2:24.00 | 1973
2. Easy Goer | 2:26.00 | 1989
3. A.P. Indy | 2:26.13 | 1992
4. Risen Star | 2:26.40 | 1988
5. Gallant Man | 2:26.60 | 1957
6. American Pharoah | 2:26.65 | 2015
Got the lead cheap but ran fast late.
Nice company. As happy as I expected I\'d be. Got to be at least a neg 3. When Moobie ran at him and Victor sat like a statue it was over in my eye. Likely a lot earlier.
Brooklyn Handicap fractions:
23.62 :49.20 1:13.80 1:38.80 2:03.21 2:27.17
Belmont Stakes fractions:
24.06 :48.83 1:13.41 1:37.99 2:02.33 2:26.65
Here are the quarter-miles American Pharoah ran:
24.06
24.77
24.58
24.58
24.34
24.32
Surface was fast side all day, AP learning to rate better. Materiality was more than empty and could not even pressure AP a little,another TAP was last.
Fraud-sted was ok, Keen Ice much better than expected.
That may not be a tremendous machine but it\'s a machine none the less
Last five Triple Crown winners, all wire to wire in the Belmont.
Assuming he got back to the neg 3 (the basis of a conversation in itself), he\'s close to Smarty and within shouting distance of Rachel (only at level weights). But he still may go forward.
Mike
tAP gives me a headache. American Pharaoh the story of the weekend of course. The real deal and deserves all the kudos and whatever else.
But Pletcher runs dead last with no less than 6 horses that took money and had numbers the last two days at Belmont.
Yet, he wins a handful of races as well.
Competitive edge and materiality couldn\'t have been worse today. He even had the nerve to run second to last to competitive edge with his other \"fast\" horse in the race.
Don\'t even know what to say about the guy.
Rob
Come the revolution...
The truth is out there (I liked that one so much I used it twice).
Rob,
When horses look that good going in and run that poorly, it\'s usually sick/hurt.If they got roughed up and faded, that\'s one thing but CE and Mat did not run a step
Mike
When it\'s A horse that runs big or bad yeah, but that\'s a whole different thing.
Snots can run thru a barn like wild fire, happens often enough.
Yeah, okay.
Make it 7 last place horses.
Didn\'t notice Matterhorn ran last in the nightcap..
Ugh
Rob
You are mentioning very controversial things here. Tread lightly.
People on the board believe every photo and close race he wins is a result of having the best horses. Every race he finishes dead last is b/c it is a matter of percentages that will put a horse there......
Did you say snots or shots?
Pace or no pace, weak field or not, 2:26 and change is real racehorse time. I\'m a believer.
Fraud-sted was ok
Read all your posts. get a kick out of many.I admire your straighforward dissension towards the political garbage and misdirection.However,Frosted imo
is a whole bunch better than ok.In fact,imo he\'s a serious racehorse with serious racetrack spirit.Btw,he\'s real fast on mostly everyone\'s stuff.
Belmont Stakes: Having the ability to \"run all day\". \"test of champions\".
Scoreboard: Frosted second best while running outside his own,personal,individual,idiosyncratic and preferred style.
With the \"of course\" provisions given, imo Frosted makes a huge splash in the
fall.
On a mutual note, i hope racing aquires a leader/leaders who vanquishes the insidious,money grubbing force and elevates Horseracing while maintaining singleminedly the most important aspect. El Caballos!
Best to you,
Flighted(mike).
Frosted also checked midway on the 2nd turn in the midst of making his rally when Mub came out off the rail. Frosted then got back into stride, dropped down to the rail and took off again. Haven\'t heard anyone mention that yet.
He wouldn\'t have gotten by the winner no matter what IMO. But he clearly ran the 2nd best race yesterday in the Belmont.
Iron,
Thanks. No slug designation for Fraud-sted but not sure he\'s got upside, the tie back always a concern.Being fair, thought he got a great Belmont trip, nice position on slow pace but got run away from by AP.Guess he\'s top 5-6 of 3yr olds at this point but he needs help up front, me thinks.
All top 3yr olds were battered by AP, see how they come back.
Best,
Mike
Mike
Nobody in same league as AP yesterday, so I was surely wrong with my view that frosted and materiality were good plays. And I paid a dear price \"wasting\" slumber in the pick 4.
That said, will strongly disagree with frosted getting a great trip. Closer, in and amongst a bunch of crowded horses during first quarter mile as best horse set a dawdling pace. Then moved to rail by rosario, only to get shut off and lose momentum as Mjellish pointed out.
Not Rosario\'s fault, unless he should have been aware that Pletcher was gonna crap out with another fast horses and materiality wasn\'t even going to be able to keep up to a 49 half. Joel left for position but because pace so slow, he go caught in a crowd.
Lots of slamming of Kent on keen ice. Guess I can. See that, but when the pace dawdles and the field clumps, horses get caught wide s d jockeys can\'t do much. Didn\'t see a ton of chance for Kent to tuck and save ground.
Also think frosted ran a much better race than keen ice despite what the figures will say. He took a run at AP after losing his momentum, and then AP broke his heart with a burst of speed, while keen ice clunked up after the race was over. Frosted wasn\'t stopping, AP just ran away from him.
Rob
Rob,
Picky, picky,most would pay money for that cozy trip.In and amongst horses is much better on grass but they were crawling on that glib surface.Mini stop by Fraud during crawl fest not of any consequence imo, don\'t finish an inch closer without it.
Reasonable argument that if you switch trips between Fraud and Keen, maybe Keen beats him to wire. Keen looked dead approaching turn, no idea what drunk was doing.
The horrific performance by Mat kinda ruined the race when no pressure was put on AP. There were some mini uncomfortable trips but wouldn\'t give mulligans.
Mike
Guess he\'s top 5-6 of 3yr olds at this point but he needs help up front, me thinks.
Miff,
Aside from AP who are the 3-4 that are better?
flighted
Iron,
\"Better\" is subjective. On their best days, prefer Upstart, Firing Line, Dortmund to Fraud-sted, not that they are far apart.All three more tactical and can make their own race.
Numbers hardly tell the whole story,pro-active horses with equal figs to reactive horses will dominate, all else equal.
Mike
Miff,
If you\'re speaking about a \"better\" wager vs. actual measured ability then
i might be inclined to agree/disagree depending on odds. Gambling is speculation and race dynamics certainly can be abstract. Speed types don\'t always make the lead and closers don\'t always lose ground/get stopped.
Firing line,Upstart and Frosted all tied for 2nd best imo. Dortmund somewhat
overrated.
Flighted Iron
Didn\'t Dortmund beat Firing Line twice and finish just behind him in the Derby after doing the dirty work on a dead rail or disadvantaged inner path if you will?
Iron,
It\'s possible that Dortmund was not 100% for Derby/Preak, somewhat weakened by colic, perhaps a mulligan, perhaps a fraud.
Was not referring to odds vs figs etc.As far as running styles, horses closer at the pace call at all distances, dominate closers in wins by a wide margin.
Frosted next closest to FL in their races with AP
Mike
Dortmund and Firing line very close earlier. Dortmund hasn\'t progressed. Imo he needs front end bias,concrete type dirt racetrack.Fwiw ground loss imo is an excuse most time than not.A real( hate using this term)\"classy\" horse can handle many surfaces/adjust running style somewhat.
Re Frosted: Somewhat subjective and based on how well he ran visually and figuratively after the surgery,imo he wins FOY stakes if 1.surgery performed
prior. 2.blinks trimmed back.
Flighted iron