If Divine Park inherits the lead if what is supposed to happen doesn't happen that is if Leparioux takes a hold of Wanderin Boy early on, I believe Divine Park would be awfully tough to catch today. Divine Park has shown his ability to put himself into the right spots in races, Curlin is a great horse but I am not so sure his style is condusive to the Saratoga track. Seems like a good day to take him on, I'm making Divine Park a single on my pick tickets today and spreading the earlier races. The 8th is a spread race for me for sure.

Anyone catch Beyer today on DRF this morning? Anyway I am now including Wanderin Boy in the Pick 4. Either he or Divine Park will set the pace today which is the most likely way to beat Curlin.

I'd rate Wandering boy as the best shot to steal the win for the reasons mentioned. He should be out front by himself, but unless they lose touch of him and walk through a turf paced half mile, it's hard to figure how he or others make up open lengths on a fit Curlin.

Pass the Point went to the lead with Wanderin Boy tracking right in second. Curlin broke well but was floated out wide by Divine Park and in the process, took Out of Control out a little further. The ran in 22.89, 46.20, 1:09.61, 1:35.33. Curlin started making his move going into the far turn from about five back, Divine Park said "What the hell, we have to go around ANOTHER turn?" and packed it in. Pass the Point led into the lane, Wanderin Boy still second, Curlin making a nice move to move up along side but needing some encouragement to do so. The stretch run could have been timed with a sundial. Curlin, under serious urging finally made it past a stubborn Pass the Point and pulled clear to win by around a length of just under. The finished in 1:49.34 so Curlin ran his final 8th in around 14 seconds, proving yet again that while he's the best of this year's older horses, he's far from a great horse. This struggling victory was even less impressive than Big Brown's Haskell if you ask me and you'd have to think that Big Brown would have had an excellent chance to have beaten Curlin had he been there today. Wanderin Boy finished third.

Curlin is amazing!!!

Pass the Point is a nice dirt horse if you ignore his synthetic and turf efforts.

If this race was a handicap not a weight for age we may have had a totally different finish.