Indedpendent of all other questions pertaining to this horse (and there are a lot, some of which you mentioned), I definitely don't buy into the gawking/looking around stuff, either with this horse or in general. Horses are exerting themselves to the point where it takes weeks to recover, and they are not strolling down the stretch looking at the scenery. I have had a related conversation with a number of guys who trained for me over the years, and I don't buy any of the mental excuses-- in my experience a physical issue always shows up, although it may take a while to reveal itself.

It looked to me like Tapit was trying to get in pretty seriously through the stretch, and the jock had to turn his head sideways to keep him straight. BI/BO with an experienced horse are usually the product of either exhaustion or an attempt to get off something that hurts. Which doesn't mean Michael can't get another big one, or even a forward move-- but if there is something wrong it won't be the first case of an owner or trainer forcing the issue to make the Derby, and as a general rule the connections don't say that's what they are doing.



TGJB