And if you say "because the entries haven't been drawn yet and you don't know who is in the field" - you'll earn your post a special place in the Tard Hall of Fame, because I was responding to posted future book odds.

DrugS, what you say about Lawyer Ron makes sense, but according to Pletcher, he is going to do the exact opposite of what you spelled out.
According to this article (http://www.drf.com/news/article/89024.html):
"Pletcher said he would train Lawyer Ron a little harder going into the Classic, and said he and jockey John Velazquez believe it might be best to let Lawyer Ron roll early, rather than try and ration his speed."
Now of course, he could be bluffing and might actually intend a completely different strategy. If he is telling the truth however, that doesn't seem to bode well for Hard Spun at all.

I'm sure he is anticipating the Monmouth Park track to be as speed favoring as it was in the summer.

And, if by saying he's going to "send him" and "let him roll" he can bait Hard Spun into being the one who rates from 2nd - Lawyer Ron is a complete and utter lock in the Classic.

Hard Spun needs the lead, Lawyer Ron doesn't, and no rider trys to avoid being in head-to-head battles more than Velazquez.

I think the odds that these two horses duel for the lead are very slim. And Lawyer Ron only has the lead if Hard Spun doesn't break well, or breaks well and Pino doesn't want it.

Lawyer Ron showed he was itchy again early. He settled down nicely (not hard with that field), but he waisted some energy early. JV did not have the smooth go early on that he might have liked so I can see how he might feel this way.

I'm not convinced Curlin can handle the turns at Monmouth.

Street Sense/Any Given Saturday/Hard Spun/High Cholesterol

As of right now, I'm between two horses....and one of my horses is clearly a bigger price than anyone of your three.

How am I covering my ass by saying if the race was run right now, I'd bet a Hard Spun/Lawyer Ron exacta box...and if I had to play a future right now, I'd take one of those two?

Until we know how the track is playing that weekend, this all seems like a relatively pointless conversation.

Yeah. How about them Cubs?

Well, as a lifelong Cubs-hater, discussing their poor performace in the playoffs would make me quite happy.

Not when future wagers are being discussed. And I responded to the posting of future wagers.

That's what I liked most about the original TVG fantasy contest...you had to handicap races three and four weeks in advance, and a lot of people just wrongly assumed that it's impossible to gauge how likely a race will be run weeks before entries are drawn. As well as wrongly assuming that tendencies for tracks about to open are impossible to know until races have been run over them.

Fair enough.

He's 12/1 right now in the future market open to the poster who I was responding to.

I'll pass on Europe....

Did you actually think I wasn't going to mention that speculation driven contest?

I'm really a big Street Sense fan you know! You have it all wrong!

Change it to either Brady or Moss. You make the pick.

I'll take the one you don't.

If that's the case, go with Pennington in a Marshall jersey.