Re: My take on the Belmont (482 Views)
Posted by:
HP (IP Logged)
Date: June 07, 2004 11:28AM
Total nonsense.
They were working on getting Purge to rate in the Peter Pan. Bailey was on the radio Friday saying he was going to go early. Jason Orman was saying he would tell Solis to lay close and "not let him get away from us." There was no deception or "strange" instructions. Everyone did exactly what they said they were going to do ahead of time.
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM dictates that Belmont winners are horses that stay close to the pace. I read it in at least TEN articles leading up to the race.
Finally, no one put a gun to Elliot's head and told him to take the lead. If Purge wasn't going to be on the lead, Smarty looked like the most likely candidate to set the pace and that's what he did.
Maybe the bluebloods should have just let Smarty win. Like they did with Secretariat.
HP