What's interesting about what happened Sat. is that Harlington became the third hopeful in two weeks to have identical wide trips that immediately brought the naysayers out in droves..

Harlington.. High Fly.. Giacomo..

All three had little chance in their respective outings without being at peak form and hard-used. And what trainer that's pointing for the first Sat. in May is going to want to run a "Second of June" race in February? FG is a quirky joint to visit. It was Harlington's third career start, first ship. I'm not bothered by the outcome as I'm sure Pletcher isn't. It looked like a good learning experience and he never stopped trying.

As to the discussion of Funny Cide above, he encountered a variety of problems in that Holy Bull. It was his first ship; first route; first graded stake; first race v. open company; first off a layoff... He was in the 13 hole and smacked the gate coming out, rushed up to track the leaders while wide all the way, AND STILL FINISHED FIFTH!

On top of everything else, Smullen and Barclay discovered after the race that he STILL was suffering from the pesky lung infection that had been plaguing him for months. And they had yet to discover his need for a kinder bit.. They gave him a second layoff leading up to the LA Derby, but he was working up a storm at deep Palm Meadows in the meantime.

(See my Derby Trail piece, "A Derby Contender on the Cide," tabbing him as a Classic contender from two years ago: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/DerbyTrail/message/15)

And if we're talking about failures in Jan-Feb preps, recall that War Emblem was a disinterested 6th in the Risen Star in '02; Charismatic a 5th of 5 in the Santa Catalina in '99 and Real Quiet a dead last 8th in the GG Derby as the even money favorite...



Derby Trail: http://www.derbytrail.com
At the Races on SiriusXM: http://www.stevebyk.com