Was there anyway to see that big negative number for LAL?

[streetbull]

First off, i want to be clear that I had missed the Preakness Stakes, as Super Saver and Dublin did not fired.....I just wanted to chime in some thoughts on Looking at Lucky for some future discussions on form cycle...

Looking at Lucky ran a terrific race in the Rebel race, his first race back from his two year old season.  He ran one of the top three sustained fraction in this year\'s crop along with Endorsement in the Lone Star and Sidney\'s Candy in the SA Derby.  Endorsement went down with a leg injury, so Super Saver moved up a spot from his two year old line from CD...

It rained alot in California, so maybe Baffert did not have enough time to get LAL ready to fire his best race by the first Saturday in May....Lal, in hindsight, sure has a prep race schedule like Afleet Alex except  that Afleet used a 6 furlong sprint race as one of his prep races...Both were expected to do well in the Derby but both fired in the Preakness Stakes instead....

In the Kentucky Derby, Looking at Lucky made a huge move from 20 lengths back to be only 6 lenghts back by the mid race call....This was a huge middle move into a fast pace before flattening out....I labeled this move for years as a common training maneuver by such great trainers as Neil Drysdale, Ron McAnally, and the late Robert Frankel....( Maybe someone who knows McAnally or Drysdale can hit them up for some pointers regarding this conditioning move  during a prep race for a major objective.  I recalled that AP Indy ran like this in the Jockey Gold Cup, losing to Pleasant Tap,before winning the bigger objective...The Breeders Cup  Classic, in his next race......(I think  that AP was squeezed at the start and lost a shoe during the early stages of the Jockey Gold Cup )

Another view....if you are a believer of the two pair up races before the major move up race from the pair races....

The Rebel race was LAL\'s late kick conditioning race....
The SA Derby was a non-effort race as LAL got nothing out of the SA Derby...
The Kentucky Derby was LAL\'s early speed conditioning race as he made a huge middle move into a fast race before flattening  out.....

Then the Preakness was the major objective race as Baffert got LAL primed for since he ran out of time for the Derby for one reason or another.....

Anyways...just my two cents....

[kensharkey]

so your saying the derby was a prep?  too funny