Another Frankel Debacle

[Catalin]

Sightseek, Lady Tak, Class Above, Peace Rules, Midas Eyes, Alderbaran, Heat Haze, Tates Creek, Cuvee, Congaree, etc.

Maybe it was some pre-Halloween black magic that caused them all to X on the biggest day of the year.

Repeat after me.  I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks...

[Mall]

I\'m not sure if this counts, but I believe in the retired South African turf runner Spook Express, who got a piece of the BC Turf at 7yrs old 2 or 3 yrs ago if memory serves. My only exception to your list is Congaree, who I thought ran a pretty good race, all things considered. It was a little disturbing to learn that he had open gashes from PVal\'s agressive use of the stick, although it apparently wasn\'t bad enough to prevent him from running again in the Cigar Mile. It\'s way off topic, but imho aggressive whipping is overrated, & I for one would like to see American racing at least adopt the much smaller European whips.

[jbelfior]

Ok, Dana you\'re right. He\'s 2 for 57 on Breeder\'s Cup day because he\'s unlucky one day a year and it happens to always be that day.


Joe B.

[Philadelphiatony2]

I guess Trainer\'s choke too. Maybe he puts too much pressure on himself. Maybe it\'s the curse of the Bambino.

[Phalaris]

It\'s all about what was said earlier on this list - Frankel gets some of the best-bred horses in the world and he spots them where they can win. He\'s not afraid to duck out when the going looks tough (eg, MDO in the SA Handicap). But on BC day, he doesn\'t have the luxury of five-horse fields filled with out-of-form has-beens, optimistically placed allowance types and assorted other unprovens and never-weres. Predictably, his win percentage goes out the window.

He might have done better under other circumstances. He was bringing a late-running East Coast 7f specialist to a Sprint in California; and he was bringing a filly who had failed to win in three starts at SA back to the only place she had ever lost races on the dirt. He was wasting a decent horse in Peace Rules running him in the Mile, rather than run in the Classic and risk the higher agendas of securing championships for MDO and Empire Maker. (One pretty much needed to win the Classic in order to claim a championship, the other needed a 3YO not to run well. Peace Rules figured to conflict with rather than complement MDO\'s running style and the chance that Peace Rules might run well would hurt EM\'s chances.)