Dubai Duty Free

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Kimmeastar

Brother Derek is a Piece of sh_t,So beating him does not add any glory to Lava Man.In fact it demotes him even more in my book.
But I agree with you,Let's keep him in SoCal,where the competition is easy for him.But it will be interesting to see how he recovers from this trouncing.

But regardless of what you think of Brother Derek's ability, the differing results when the two squared off is one indicator (one of MANY I might add) that Lava Man really does run better races in SoCal than he does when he leaves SoCal.
My larger point is this: It does not makes sense to me to refer to a horse that has won 12 stakes races (including 6 G1s) as just a "claiming horse." If he is a claiming horse, than how would you describe the horses actually running in the claiming races in SoCal? Or what about the ones in NoCal, or any other track that is a step down from the SoCal tracks?
He is a horse that can be pretty good in the right conditions. When his connections foolishly take him away from those conditions, he is very ineffective. That doesn't make him a bad horse.....just one with very specific limitations.