SD was scratched from today's engagement according to NYRA website.

Yes you can take 30 or so 3YOs and make a "study" of how they react to negative numbers; you can make whatever conclusion from that study that you may. However, each of these 30 or so 3YOs has probably gone negative only once in their career. My point is that I would much rather see how a horse who has gone negative 2 or 3 times in his career reacts than to look at a study of a number of horses who have only posted one negative number.

I think the half mile fraction in tomorrow's race is more important than some contrived pattern "analysis". If they cut out a half under 45 seconds, and the 2 primary speeds and the 2 secondary speeds are within a length or so of that pace, Likely (who has been burning up (melting?) the Polyester track in the morning but picks up 10 pounds), SD and maybe Doc Cheney can pick up the pieces at a price.