alm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Having picked all 3 Triple Crown races based on my
> 'who's drugging who' and who isn't on any given
> saturday, I'll venture Pletcher doesn't enter AGS
> in the Travers. Clearly his recent record in NY
> suggests the testing there is a bit ahead of his
> clever vet.
>
> If he does enter AGS the horse is likely to run
> clean and lose.
>
> Curlin is not likely to enter, but if he does, he
> will lose. He perplexed his trainer? Confused
> performance...did not handle the track or has an
> injury no one has seen just yet; condylar most
> likely as x-rays alone can't pick it up.
>
> SS should win, but he looked more than a race
> short of his best the last time. There may be a
> minor upset: Shug's horse.

alm,

I think "Old School" Carl Nafzgar (said fondly) always has SS 3/4 cranked for prep races and uses them to crank him fully for the big race. Plus, though I love the Shugster, the Phipps "gene pool" is so overwhelmingly weighted towards filly superstars, it's only about once a decade or so that they produce an A+ male superstar a la Easy Goer and Coranado's Quest. I don't think Sightseeing is this decades male superstar but 10F should suit him well. Analysis of the Phipps breeding stock is a fascinating subject unto itself which many equine breeding "experts" have explore endlessly. There's just something magical in those Phipps double X chromosomes.