To be honest, going into the race, the real 'hanger' I thought was in there was Hysterical Lady. I used to think that she was just getting beat by a better horse in N Key but then she got caught after walking in her last at Santa.

Then again, very few of the 3 yoF G1's were won very convincingly aside from Rag's Ky Oaks. I think if you ran the Distaff 10 times, you'd probably have 4 or 5 different winners.

I saw Octave taken far back at the start. That is not where she does her bet running and to think she hung yesterday is ludicrous.

She had a full head of steam going into the stretch against two speed horses that were slowing down. Watch Pletcher's reaction. Its obvious that he thought she hung.

you must have loved saarland.

Octave has a very impressive resume when it comes to looking loaded at the 3/16ths pole and finishing without the punch. She actually finished 2nd in six of the first eight starts of her career.

Hystericalady, on the other hand, had a lifetime record of 10-6-0-0 on natural dirt surfaces coming into yesterday. That is obviously not the record of a hanger. However, she was NEVER rated in any of her routes on natural dirt (where she was 4-3-0-0 lifetime - injured in her only loss) and Castro decided to put a full nelson hold on her early.

Being hard rated early on by Eddie Castro and getting rank - combined with being floated out very wide by the incompetent J. Baird (the jockey of the Tiznow filly who set the pace in the Distaff and beat Octave last out) is what I believe did Hystericalady's stamina in come the final furlong - after being taken out of her game with the rating tactics, racing rank, and getting floated so wide by Baird, the gas tank was clearly on E very late.

I think you need to watch the race in slow motion, this filly was NEVER taken back, at the break she didn't have the speed of the others and the back spray was causing her to climb, it took her a long time to get herself to level off, read the post race comments from both Gomez and Pletcher, Gomez said she was flying till 2 lengths from the winner and idled, a classic hanger. Pletcher said she had a dream trip and just couldn't get up. Octave is a nice filly to use in a tri, but tough to put on top, some horses are just like that, I have a riding horse that refuses to be the lead horse on the trail, they are just funny that way, I can guarantee you Octave will never be the boss of a herd, she's a follower plain and simple.

yes