I'm hoping for the heavy Sandy. The Good Grade I horse winning in 2:03 and change for 10 furlongs Sandy. That's the Sandy I want to see. The demanding, energy sapping, stride altering Sandy. The Sandy where Greatness is confirmed and the Sandy where Wouldabeen, shouldabeen, couldabeen are often exposed. Or worse yet.

You know, we've got to be leery though, because AP just beat a maiden by 7 lengths. Sure, Firing Line and Dortmund both confirmed that they exited the Derby with issues. We know that now, though we had some clues before the race. Nevertheless, we sent them into the Preakness to do battle and they were not up to the task. A career 12 runner was clearly second best.

We've had a lot of the better horses go off form this Triple Crown season. That has inured greatly to the benefit of having a Triple Crown winner this year. Upstart was not a "one time" nice fig horse. Don't think he had what's now on AP's resume, but Upstart's absence in the first two legs certainly made it easier for AP to be positioned where he now is.

Ding, Ding, Ding... it's also round three. We have some of the higher quality animals returning for this one. If one suspected that Firing Line and Dortmund were over the top going into the Preakness, what was left in that race? Not very much.

Guess there's two camps in this event. The "AP is awesome and a Triple Crown winner camp". And the "I can beat AP at odds on and cash greedy camp."

There's some concerns. Remember Baffert's Silver Charm and Real Quiet? Those two were right there for the Triple Crown. I respect Baffert, though he is getting a little loopy in his old age, and I'm worried he may keep AP together for one more. The latter camp is hoping for a War Emblem type result however. But at least we are here now. We got to the tough test without AP already surrendering the opportunity for the upset.

Cash Greedy

miff Wrote:
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> Pretty much an assumption that Frosted entrapped
> in the FOY, was never confirmed. Besides procedure
> several changes,including jock, were made to
> Frosted pre-Wood and horse responded well then ok
> derby followed.Most notable, take back further and
> make a late run.
>
> Frosted only Belmont entrant with a race over
> surface which was a good one, a nice edge.Nasty
> Belmont surface causes many horses to run down,not
> an easy surface. Baffert threw out a hint when
> talking to NYRA about hoping the surface would be
> like when Secretariat ran, not a chance.