Jimbo-- Beyer's comments notwithstanding, he also had the Derby going a lot slower than several preps (even including the BG), so at most he can say the Derby went slow. As far as the raw time goes, keep in mind they had a pretty strong wind working against them and working behind the sprinters. My own opinion is that between drug questions, pace questions (very fast into that wind), and possible dead rail questions, it is very hard to evaluate the meaning (as opposed to the numbers) of the Derby, and we may have a better idea what went on as these horses go on throughout the year.

Alan also made an interesting point-- all else aside, the ones off the big jumps did bounce. And the ones that ran one-two, slow as they were, came in off the pair of tops pattern we talked about, and ran new tops.

I'm going to try and keep my answers short except in certain cases, because this board is just devouring what little time I have-- just reading everything is time consuming. I'm going to try not to get into it with CH any more, and for now I'm going to just let him post rather than ban him. Let me make this clear-- my problem is not with his opinion that in certain cases pace can affect outcomes-- I agree, although I think it happens far less often than he does. My problem is the sheer tonnage of nonsense he is unloading here-- that stuff about Summerly (which most recently included the supposition that she looked like she could have run faster at FG so should have run faster now) was total hogwash. HP, you want him, you got him, but it's like trying to grab smoke.



TGJB