Cali Horses

[JR]

1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th.

[TGJB]

Cal horses had 3 of the 4 fastest tops-- the question wasn\'t if they were good enough, it was if they would fire.

The two shock wave horses both ran well.

[JR]

True. Who\'s the other ESWT horse?

[TGJB]

Creative Cause. Who was very wide.

[JR]

They all ran well, even Liaison and Rousing Sermon. What\'s inexplicable is how poorly TCI, EP and Gem ran.

[phil23]

I was basically only watching TCI throughout the entire race as I had a rather large futures position on him.  He had the perfect trip.  He and IHA were side by side 1w and 2w the whole way, they started to move together on the turn (and TCI was still inside as opposed to IHA who had to go wider) and then TCI just stopped.  Not sure what happened.  

TCI and GEM...almost impossible to believe how bad they both ran.

[sighthound]

I think El Padrino may have a little nagging something going on, that explains this week and this race.  I will love him in the Belmont.

Bodemeister:  what an awesome horse.  Class act.  I\'ll by a stallion share right now.

Kudos to I\'ll Have Another - he got a terrific, perfect ride that enabled him to shine.  He\'ll only improve.  Jock deserved the win, as did Team O\'Neill

Dullahan:  new respect for that bloodline.  Just grinds it out.  Gritty and tough.

Union Rags:  still a fan.  Another gritty horse that overcame a terrible race to finish well.  Honest horse, tries hard.  Class.

Shockwave therapy on the back, other ancillary sports therapies:  They work.  I knew that.  That\'s what I do for a living :-)  Welcome to the 21st century, horsemen, we can help horses like we do humans :-)

The Herd Whisperer:  He was right on about the horses personalities.  There is no magic there, just good observational horsemanship.  Well done.

My handicapping:  as soon as tri\'s pay off 2-3-4 finishers, and supers 2-3-4-5, I\'m turning Derby-Oaks pro.  Until then, I definitely have to keep my day job!

[sighthound]

Don\'t be too hard on them. It was an extraordinarily hot and humid day at Churchill.

[slewzapper]

All five horses with paired tops going in (the \"good\" pattern) ran poorly - which is indicative of how poorly most horses perform in this race, because even the \"good\" pattern had a nearly 50% chance of running off or Xing.

Gem was well placed early like TCI, and both fell back without encountering trouble.

[BB]

The blimp shot really showed what a great ride Gutierrez gave him. They were all by their lonesomes just galloping along. And I thought that was super classy for a young jock like that to give a shout out to the grooms, with some of the first words out of his mouth as a derby winner.

[MO]

TCI didn\' t run worth a sh!t in the BCJ either. Not really a surprise. I think he prefers GP.

[ajkreider]

The track excuse can\'t be used for Gem, though.

[MO]

Head scratcher for sure.............

[Michael D.]

BB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The blimp shot really showed what a great ride
> Gutierrez gave him. They were all by their
> lonesomes just galloping along. And I thought that
> was super classy for a young jock like that to
> give a shout out to the grooms, with some of the
> first words out of his mouth as a derby winner.

agree Bob. that was fun to watch.

meanwhile, Union Rags had a full coat of mud after a quarter. what a nightmare that was. some here warned of the risk, which, in hindsight, was significant going in. he could be a Lookin At Lucky, who had a very similar trip before winning the 3 yr old title. can\'t imagine there\'s gonna be any value in that view, however. and the trip risk will be there next time as well.

looks like the Wood was a slow horse race. wind hindered the one-turn races that day, the crazy internals suggested that (no?), but not the one 9f race, which goes the same distance both ways. 1:50.4 was apparently slow. the final 1/8 was horrific, that\'s for sure. I\'m no expert, but that was my view heading in, and I think it was confirmed.

and it could be that most figure makers had the SA Derby too slow. I don\'t know.

Dull ran well. kudos to Kent D who did the best he could under the circumstances. he also took a ton of mud.

as for Bode, well, he\'s a Congaree type. he\'s real. stopped badly at the end with a :14 final 1/8, and you rarely win triple crown races with that fraction. but he was a legit runner-up after setting historic fractions. brutal fractions. he was game on three weeks rest. he was 2nd best. note that Congaree was the wise-guy horse of the year in the Preakness, nearly stealing favoritism from Point Given, only to run a weakish 3rd.

[sighthound]

You know, Bode was running those fractions freely, well within himself.  He didn\'t have any pressure.