It's been awhile since I've posted here, but all the talk about this weekends' preps has got my blood starting to boil. This will likely be lenghty.

Does the term perfect trip mean anything to anyone with regards to Master David ? Lets see, he saves ground the entire trip, sits 5th behind a 4 horse duel into the turn, waits for an opening on the rail and gets lucky when Value plus backs out, he twice bumps a resurgent Eddington ( more on him later )once outside the 1/16th and again just inside, and is then fortunate that the wire shows up in time. Improvement 2nd back off the gap in Louisville ? Don't bet on it.

Now Tapit.
Last from the start, he saves ground first turn, advances easily to be 7th while 4 wide into the turn, angles down to the 2-3 path midway on the turn, is steadied briefly inside the 1/16 pole and is up in time. To correct the person who claims he was not hit inside the 1/16 pole, please watch the race and have all 10 fingers ready to count whips inside the 1/16. Only in the last 2-3 jumps does Ramon put it away. Pretty dreamy in my book. Was the rail especially good that day ? Perhaps, but Tapits' race is the classic case of a closer getting it all his way and looking brilliant while doing it.

Eddington was clearly the superior animal in this year's Wood.
Breaking alertly and 3-4 wide into and throughout the 1st turn, Eddi moved into the 47 half and advanced 4 wide the entire turn. His 24 second quarter mile getting him to 3/4's in 1:11 3/5 was accomplished running as wide as possible. (Jerry was effectively repeating his losing ride aboard Cigar in the Breeder's Cup at Woodbine.) Bailey did get him to change leads earlier than in his MSW and Alw1x wins. Did anyone else notice that uppon reaching the 1/8 pole and having changed leads 4 strides prior, Bailey hit him just once left handed until they reached the 1/16 pole. That's 1/16 of a mile without asking for his best. During that time, MD rallied under furious right and left hand whipping to gain a half length lead on Eddington. Upon seeing Tapit looming large to his right, Bailey began to hit Eddi right handed and the horse cut the margin to a nose at the wire. I'm betting that TGB will have the best fig for Eddi and from any other means of evaluating the race, pace, trip, etc, Eddington was best.
Now, all I need is to get the rats that don't belong to not enter : Action This Day, Minister Eric, St. Averil, Birdstone, etc.
If he's in, he wins.
Also, track variants and conditions aside, all three races had similiar pace scenarios and similiar final times. Was Lion Heart or Smarty Jones 4 wide the entire length of both turns ? Were they part of multiple horse duels ? As for TCE, he clearly benefitted from an excessively fast early race and actually was dropped down to the rail midway on the far turn. Lion Heart ran the best race.
I'm I wrong, or was SJ's -3 the fastest early 3 year old number ever recorded ? Am I the only one who thinks he may have trouble jogging a 1 1/4 miles after that Rebel effort coupled with his Arkansa win.
Finally, Borego was unable to make up any real ground on the staggering leader. Borego's final 3/8's was in a less than earthshattering 37 3/5's considering he too saved ground throughout. The extra 1/4 is the last thing he wants. No threat at CD.

Thanks for your time.