Hopefully taking fuel away from the fire, not adding to it...

I talked to Elliott Walden the day before the race, told him I thought Gettysburg was coming up to a good effort and might last longer than he thought. That got us into talking about Connecting Terms, one of mine he trained for Prestonwood, who we both loved, and who against both our wishes was used as a rabbit for Victory Gallop in the Whitney.

Anyway, he said they weren't going to dead send Gettysburg, but just wanted to ensure an honest pace so that (as Asmussen says in tomorrow's DRF) the field didn't bunch up. In that sense it worked perfectly-- Ortiz was able to avoid getting caught wide.

Some of you guys might be surprised how ground loss conscious Elliott and Asmussen are, and if you watch Chad Brown and Clement runners, it's pretty clear they give instructions that way too.