Miff:

I am also intrigued by the praise being heaped on the world class layoff trainer (?) and his obviously talented colt.

In the Travers (and this is IMO a result of the over emphasis on the Triple Crown races, especially the Derby) there were basically two runners. Don't Get Mad, Reverberate, Andromeda's Hero and Chekhov never factored. Roman Ruler, like Baffert's other trainees in the Graded Stakes races, looked ill prepared for his mission.

In the Wood, BR got off to an impossible lead and maintained his advantage. In the Travers, BR got his uncontested lead but may have only been fit for 8-9 furlongs. I still haven't seen him hooked early in a quality race, put away challengers, and then draw off.

With regards to NZ, he seems to want to train more of his horses more of the time up at Saratoga. When he shipped In the Gold from Saratoga to Belmont for the Acorn (sorry to bring it up again, Jimbo), she showed slow Oklahoma works and I had nagging doubts about her fitness for the distance (bet her anyway). Look at BR's two training track works BEFORE his two bullets on the main track --identical breezes 5/8ths in 1:04.2. I know the training track surface is deep, but what is a horse getting out of works like that?

Virgil "Buddy" "Pop" Raines once said that once he got a horse to the races, he would never work them more than a half mile. You rarely see Mott or Shug work an animal more than 5/8s of a mile; I think Shug may have gotten this from Frank Whiteley. Is it possible BR needed one or two 3/4 mile works to have him ready for 10 furlongs? Is Flower Alley just a better horse?

Hate to be a wise guy, but if forced to bet a BC future now, I might press the "all other" button and hope for some euro I never heard of.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2005 01:34PM by richiebee.