[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Thinking this was anything other than a very disappointing effort by To Honor and Serve feels like seeing what you want to see as opposed to what you really saw. For the first time he hasn't had an absolutely perfect trip, and he didn't exactly set the world on fire, and his trip was far from bad. How good is Gourmet Dinner....and he buried him. Yes, he had a better trip, but To Honor and Serve is supposed to be a superior horse to him....and it wasn't close today.

Sorry, but it seems to me that horses that are going to the Derby off two preps are likely a lot more cranked up than people seem to want to believe. To Honor and Serve packed it in after seven furlongs today. After today I am inclined to go to the " horse he was dressed up by two straight dream trips " side of the fence.

I think this is true. When horses used to have 3-4 prep races before the Derby, I think it was more often the case where they would be well below 100% for their first out. When they are only going to prep twice, there's much less room for error and I think they are wound tighter for the first out than they used to be. It used to be that trainers would not mind losing a race or two in preps if it helped them get their horse just where they wanted for the big one. Not so anymore. Because horses race so infrequently now and because so much emphasis is placed on their record, each loss is now magnified to a level that is pretty ridiculous. With that in mind, trainers are usually trying to win EVERY race now and have their horses tuned accordingly.