1- It wasn't as obvious as last year, but there was a dead rail, which happens frequently at Arlington. The only horse who got a top racing on the rail on the backstretch, second turn and stretch was Thunderello. Among the horses who may have been compromised were Summer Colony, Santa Catarina, Whywhywhy, Dollar Bill, and Perfect Drift.

2- It's hard to know what to make of the Euro-numbers. The horses in the mile ended up running a couple of points better than I gave them for their European races, while the FM turf figures were dead on, unbelievably so. With the exception of Domedriver, I believe every horse that ran a "new top" was a 3 year old, so they in fact may have really done so-- I think it was only 3 or 4 of them, and a lot of the other 3 year olds ran right back to their Euro numbers. On balance, I think we had it right, with the possible exception of Domedriver's second race back, where I decided Time-Form had him too fast. I would add that Banks Hill ran exactly back to the figure I gave her in the same race.


3- Storm Flag Flying is the greatest 2 year old filly in history, by far. I said before the race that I didn't know what result would confirm our figures or Ragozin's for the 9/15 race-- I meant that she could be played to x on either (I didn't have her on a ticket). But she ran back to the 1 1/2, so it should be clear who was right, and that Ragozin not only got it wrong, but got it wrong by a whole bunch.

4- Rock of Gibraltar ran a very big figure, and is a very good horse. But he got no worse a trip than he figured to get from out there, and there were several horses who got really messed up by the break down, like Aldebaran.

5- Between the press party Thursday and Saturday at least 5 people told me they knew for a fact that Orientate was lame.

6- Starine got me back my losses from the early part of the card.

7- I think With Anticipation got the best BC grass figure ever, and lost, due to ground loss.

8- A win/place bet on Volponi and the exacta made me a decent winner. Not huge, decent.

We will post BC sheets, with the numbers they ran, in ROTW. Hopefully Ragozin will also post full sheets, but I doubt it. I've seen them, and I'll let you draw your own conclusions.



TGJB