I've been trying to stay out of this because it's pointless-- in this game proof is hard to come by. Evidence is another matter-- and there's some evidence Chamberlain was a pretty good ballplayer. Less so for the Shoe.

RIM and PD had similar trips re ground loss-- PD lost a total of 1/2 length. More significantly, he spotted RIM 3 pounds-- worth about a length.

Do I think an extremely hot pace can be a factor? Yes. Do I think other horses might have spit it out after going that fast? Yes-- slower (final time) ones. Of the other 2 in that duel, one was much slower (the Texas horse), the other was Peace Rules, who I was betting to run poorly (interesting how Frankel horses haven't done well in G1's recently, and how he keeps finding reasons to not run Ghostzapper and others in them). Some of us hit that tri-- publicly-- with a 4 horse box, without factoring in pace.

Do I think a slower pace would have caused RIM to run a faster final time? No. Do I think it would have caused PD to run slower? No.

Can't resist. Cary Grant, in The Philadelphia Story: "Class, my... eye".



TGJB