Re: Question for TGJB - LION HEART and Smith (604 Views)
Posted by:
FORTKNOX (IP Logged)
Date: May 13, 2004 12:41PM
MO,
No doubt that Lion Heart wasted energy going wide, but Smith probably thought the rail would be espcially "mucky" because of the rain drainage.
Still in an earlier race, Bailey used the same theory and got beat by staying wide down the strech and conceding the rail to a lesser horse. Bailey even admitted to the reporters that he screwed up.
We can't run the race again, but I believe that a rail trip would have given Lion Heart the same reasonable fractions with less (perhaps much less) enervation. The rail may have been the place to be, not to avoid. How knows?
Still, the way Smarty Jones rated and chased down Lion Heart, who had it all his way, was quite impressive.