I won't be doing the day until at least Monday, and the track may very well have changed. But there really is no such thing as an accurate par time for the 1 1/2 at Belmont because of various moisture issues-- NYRA track superintendent Porcelli tells me there are days when you can see the water on the track on the backstretch, and the stretch and clubhouse turn are bone dry-- he thinks it's because of wind currents around the grandstand. Having said that, my starting point in looking at the race will indeed be to give Royal Assault his previous top, and see where that leads.

Catalin-- pretty funny about Harthill. I was at a TOBA event Fri night, and got into a conversation with someone directly involved with the graded stake commitee's attempt to clean up the drug stuff, and it confirmed both our hopes and fears. More on this sometime later.

On the rides-- it is worth keeping in mind that both SJ and Real Quiet cleared the rest of the field by a whole bunch, and if Stevens had not split horses 3 times RQ would have won. The most startling thing to me about this year's race, which I don't think anyone has commented on, is that the 3 other horses with numbers, all of whom were relatively fresh (3rd start in 8 weeks), and 2 of whom were really bred to like the distance, just spit it out. Everything considered (like, the sheer number of starts and stressful efforts he had coming in) it is amazing that SJ was the only one with big figures who ran.

Actually, I take it back, that was the second most amazing thing. How about that place price on SJ.



TGJB