Lou Holtz, illustrious college football coach (and for one year, HC of the
NYJ)has become one of hottest motivational speakers around. He said that he
became a better coach and a better person when he learned to separate what he
felt about a bad play from what he felt about the player who made the bad play.
His point, delivered to executives and managers, is that it is possible to hate
the play without hating the player.

In that spirit, and without using the "Quote this Message" function, I will
note that it was uttered on this board that "Tapit is the most overrated sire
in racing history".

I will try to refute this statement (hopefully an opinion) from memory, without
referring to the statistics and facts which are available to be reviewed before
making a statement such as this.

I think Tapit sired a BC winner in four of his first five crops (Stardom Bound,
Tapitsfly, Hansen and Tapizar) (Tapizar off to a good start at stud, having
sired the top 3YO filly Monamoy Girl). Tapit was leading overall stallion for
three consecutive years, 2014 - 2016. From a local perspective, being a New
Yorker who follows NYRA racing, Tapit did produce the winner of three of the
last five Belmonts.

Two Tapit products, Tonalist and Frosted, were brilliant over the three NYRA
tracks: Tonalist won both the Peter Pan and the Belmont at three, and was an
eye catching winner of the Cigar Mile as a 4YO in what turned out to be his
final race. Frosted won two significant 9 furlong races (Wood and Whitney), but
will probably be best remembered for his stakes record setting tour de force
performance in the Met Mile, which might be worthy of the award for best
performance on a Belmont Stakes undercard by a runner not trained by Bob
Baffert.

As good as Tapit has been, very hard to call him overrated, though my opinion
is that the stallion he replaced at the top of the sire list, the deceased
Smart Strike, might be underrated, or at least underappreciated.

As to Geroux's ride in the Belmont, when the field went into the first turn my
immediate thought was "Oh, great, Justify has a wing man." My opinion is that
the comment line for all of the runners who faced Justify should simply read
"Not fast Enough." While Repole is fixating on Castellano's failure to pressure
Justify early, my opinion is that the poorly ridden Repole colt was Vino Rosso.
VR seemed to be sitting a nice trip down the backside (in and amongst horses,
as Tom Durkin used to say) and may have moved a bit early in hopes of pressing
Justify. Could he have won the race with a better timed ride? No, but I think
Johnny V's early move may have cost VR second (and no I do not bet vertically,
so this is not a whine pressed from sour grapes).

Bob Baffert was born in 1953. On this forum and in other places Baffert and
Chad Brown are being accused with all sorts of malfeasance having to do with
PEDs; I do not believe these accusations are a bad thing (especially when
supported by facts or observations), but sometimes allow all of us to
forget that the Browns, the Bafferts, the Pletchers have many other advantages,
not the least of which is getting access to well bred and/or expensive stock.
Lets note that the last two Kentucky Derby winners had allowance races "written
for them" in order that they might begin their Derby preparation.

So when Bob Baffert was 11 years old, there was a colt entered in the Kentucky
Derby named Northern Dancer. ND was a May 27 foal. He stood a less than
majestic 15 hands tall. He was not the soundest equine, and tempermental. On
the day of the 1964 Kentucky Derby, while notorious vet Alex Harthill stood
sentry, another veterinarian administered a dose of Lasix to Northern Dancer.
Lasix was not illegal at the time per se, because very few people had even
heard of it. Northern Dancer, smaller and younger than the competition he
faced, won the Kentucky Derby, setting a Derby record time which stood until it
was broken by Secretariat nine years later. Northern Dancer went on to become a
stallion who arguably became the most influential racehorse of the late 20th
century, bringing Arabs and Europeans to North America to spend lavishly on the
weanlings and yearlings sired by ND and his sons. The injection orchestrated by
Harthill was the shot heard round the thoroughbred world. Could Northern Dancer
have won two legs of the Triple Crown on hay oats and water? We will never
know.

I have not checked the chart to verify, but Her Majesty The Queen's stakes
winner at Belmont Friday apparently set a track record for two miles, running
without Lasix.

I feel it necessary to repeat the Harthill/Northen Dancer story at least once a
year to remind us all that drugs have been part of racing for many many years,
and we are not just talking about arthritic cripples at leaky roof racetracks.

Will racing ever be drug free? I always think of a Billy Joel line: "If you
look for truthfulness, you might as well be blind". The testers are still 10
years behind the cheaters, and I am not aware of any trainer being sanctioned
on the basis of a frozen sample. Whatever damage is being done by the cheaters
in terms of equine health is counterbalanced by the fact that the industry is
doing a better job of recycling retired racehorses (fewer retired horses are
being sent to slaughter). At least I try to convince myself of this
counterbalancing so I don't have to abandon the sport altogether.

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"Behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law".

"I think everybody needs four things in life. Everybody needs something to do
regardless of age. Everybody needs someone to love. Everybody needs something
to hope for, and of course, everybody needs somebody to believe in."

Lou Holtz