Last at Bat (659 Views)
Posted by:
T Severini (IP Logged)
Date: August 30, 2015 01:11PM
AP was a good horse. A fortunate horse too.
He slugged it out to win a Derby and nothing was left in the Belmont.
The Haskell was made for him and the end of that race foretold the future.
When looking over the fractions and the track conditions, we shouldn't lose track of the fact that Monmouth and Saratoga are vastly different surfaces.
The key fraction to my eye in the Travers was that they went 1.35 for a mile after slower earlier marks. Come the last quarter they were gassed. Pharoah ran his race, he just ran into conditions a Baffert trainee is generally going to struggle with. Guess how many Travers Baffert has won? One with Point Given to my recollection.
Guess how many Haskell's Baffert has won? 5 of 6 or something like that with speedballs. He brings them to Monmouth for a reason. Add the extra 1/8th, throw in a fair surface and a little pace and that's the recipe. This was not unexpected.
So he's not a Seattle Slew or a Spectacular Bid, but no one really thought he was.
Now that Keen Ice...he's outta Curlin and an Awesome Again mare. That's a racehorse, hope some of you got some of that mutual.
Be kind to Zayat he just had his balloon burst. Hindenburg style. Zayat will show sportsmanship and run again.