It's all about what was said earlier on this list - Frankel gets some of the best-bred horses in the world and he spots them where they can win. He's not afraid to duck out when the going looks tough (eg, MDO in the SA Handicap). But on BC day, he doesn't have the luxury of five-horse fields filled with out-of-form has-beens, optimistically placed allowance types and assorted other unprovens and never-weres. Predictably, his win percentage goes out the window.

He might have done better under other circumstances. He was bringing a late-running East Coast 7f specialist to a Sprint in California; and he was bringing a filly who had failed to win in three starts at SA back to the only place she had ever lost races on the dirt. He was wasting a decent horse in Peace Rules running him in the Mile, rather than run in the Classic and risk the higher agendas of securing championships for MDO and Empire Maker. (One pretty much needed to win the Classic in order to claim a championship, the other needed a 3YO not to run well. Peace Rules figured to conflict with rather than complement MDO's running style and the chance that Peace Rules might run well would hurt EM's chances.)