Eight Belles form

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by philcski

Two additional points on this...

Recapturetheglory ran 22 points faster than his prior effort and 16 points better than his previous dirt top in the Illinois Derby. Why no question of this?

First of all - in RTG's case - you have one big race (which happened to be a win over an inside-speed biased track while setting a slow pace) That giant jump-up had more to do with pace and trip and even if you want to pretend that number was a legit indication of how well he ran. It also hasn't been repeated over and over.

It was also his first dirt race at age 3. There was a 5 month gap between that race in his prior dirt start.

In his prior dirt race, he was 2nd beaten 2 lengths to Cool Coal Man with a career top 86 Beyer.

You are right, RTG jumped 16 points to a new top in the Ill Derby. However, it was only his 3rd lifetime dirt start, and his first in 5 months, and he had an uncontested lead over an inside speed track while setting a slow pace.

That was a horrible analogy. Alina would have been much better...even though she was trainer change and layoff like Cantrel.