BC: Familiar Storylines Highlight, Mar Cup

[philcski]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

Have you watched any races there the last week? The inside was far and away the best part of the track. Again, I'm not saying that I think it mattered all that much. I truly believe the horse that were the best yesterday, won yesterday, with Asi Siempre being the one exception, as she got a horrific trip. Street Sense would have won no matter what, but the only time Borel left the rail, was to go around a horse approaching the turn. All in all, like I said, I don't think it mattered much, but obviously the rail is, and has been the place to be for the last week. Remember the Belmont BC in 2001, when the rail was dead? Same sort of thing here.

I've tried to watch as many as I can, yes- except I spent all day in the Detroit airport on Friday, awaiting a failed connection, unfortunately. I'm just contending that this has not become Keeneland West, even though the rail was preferable there was not a conveyor-belt style bias.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by philcski

I don't disagree that an inside path is preferable to an outside path, because ground loss ALWAYS plays a factor in racing, but review the charts. It's No Joke won on the square in the 3 path. Dreaming of Anna was clear early and was the best horse on a soft pace, she could have gone 14 wide and still won. Street Sense came wide into the turn then angled back in but still made up ground during his entire rally, Thor's Echo was 3 wide on the turn and down the stretch, Round Pond saved ground the whole way and got a perfect trip but the closers in the race were as much as 10 wide and still had a reasonable shot, and Invasor came 3 wide on the first turn and 7 wide to win plus Giacomo ran virtually the identical race he did in the Derby-(obviously this time it wasn't nearly good enough). Where's the bias?

It's useless.If you can't see Round Pond,and Street take off when they get to that stretch rail ,then I can't get you to see it.They bound clear(as if going from a dirt road to a paved road.)Ignore it if you want.Round Pond comes off the rail on the turn(slows ,)and then returns back to the rail(and explodes away...adios you other mamas...)

[SCUDSBROTHER]

"At first we were really down about drawing the rail but after watching the earlier races we really started to get excited because it was obvious the rail was the place to be and we even started joking about how we could probably sell that post for good money before the race," said O'Neill, who won the 2005 Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy.

"When we talked to Corey in the paddock me and the owners both said at the same time to just stay on the rail," O'Neill explained. "And even though the post helped, Corey did a fantastic job maneuvering him out like he did."

Nakatani said he wanted to stay on the rail as long as he could but once leaving the backstretch had no choice but to angle out and go after the leaders.

"On the turn I had so much horse that if I had stayed on the rail much longer I would have run over the ones in front of me," said Nakatani.

[ateamstupid]

I kinda get the feeling that the bias is why Javier moved so early on Bernardini. I think he wanted to circle the field, duck down toward the inside and save some horse. But it kinda backfired when Brother Derek was hanging on and instead of hitting Bernardini right-handed, Javy had to switch to the left so as not to completely cut off BD.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

I kinda get the feeling that the bias is why Javier moved so early on Bernardini. I think he wanted to circle the field, duck down toward the inside and save some horse. But it kinda backfired when Brother Derek was hanging on and instead of hitting Bernardini right-handed, Javy had to switch to the left so as not to completely cut off BD.

Don't get me wrong.I like Brother Derek's fight,but I don't think he is a natural 10f horse.I think the fact that he was able to hang with Bernadini for so long,was due to that inside bias.Maybe he could have put Derek away much quicker if the inside wasn't helping Derek.I think Bernadini was never comfortable on that track,and wasn't able to get as close to the rail on the backstretch as Invasor was able to get.Bernadini got a little rank before going into the turn,because the other riders tried to enclose him in the back of the center of a horseshoe formation(not unusual when there is a big favorite in a large field.)Then he got sandwiched between 2 horses on the 1st turn(as Albertrani said-he was bumped around.)All these were factors in him getting beat.The quicker pace may have been part of it as well.I was actually pretty impressed with Bernadini's effort,because to me he looked like a horse who was not handling the track well.I think that was the major reason he got beat.The fact that he ran 2nd is impressive to me,because other horses who didn't handle the track ran much worse(Lava,Perfect Drift etc.)There were a lot of new things he was being asked to do,and you never want to take low odds on any horse being asked to do something for the 1st time.New track, tougher competition,and a larger field...all things that can bother horses.