The Fat Man is just issuing a double bind here while trying to play both sides of the fence at the same time.

Zenyatta shouldn't run against Rail Trip because he's not important and beating him does nothing for her in regards to Horse Of The Year. At the same time, she shouldn't run against Rail Trip because he makes the Hollywood Gold Cup too ambitious a spot for her on the road (Easy Street?) towards HOY.

Maybe we should call him "The Fat Man With No Name" with all the spaghetti western posturing he does around here.

Better get a few coffins ready...

So you're saying she is clearly not the best horse in training?

I'm saying that.

I'm not alone evidently.

Fair enough. Even if it's a step down from what most people envisioned for her 2010 campaign, there has to be some interest in seeing Zenyatta take on St. Trinians a second time in the Clement Hirsch.

It's just disappointing that it will "waste" another start in familiar territory.

This is complete crap. Quality Road is light years ahead of Zenyatta at this point, and that gap only gets bigger and bigger after he wins the Whitney and Woodward. If she were the favorite for HOY at this point, your argument would make some sense, but she's not. She already has significant ground to make up, and we're only halfway through the year. Unless QR slips up considerably, a Classic win alone won't cut it.

i agree, quality road is the top of the heap....

and this ought to fan some flames:

http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse...21/worldclass/


charts for top horses at the bottom of the page.

Racing Post ratings are so funny.

How did St. Trinians not make that list?

Seriously. This confirms the list is bogus.

I expected 20 pages in this thread from the Zenyatta haters/fans but complaints about Quality Road? Really? It's a good idea to ship QR all the way to California to run 10F on synthetic but it's too ambitious to ask the big mare to walk 100 feet down the shed row to run her best surface and distance?? :zz:

Sheriffs ran Life Is Sweet in this spot last year but apparently challenging his best mare more than once a year is too much. The lack of good horses in this country has really created some chicken **** owners who do whatever they can to avoid losing and then act like they are doing fans a favor.

Richard's Kid should be enough to put down the ridiculous hype that is Rail Trip.

Maybe at Del Mar where the surface is a complete joke.

It doesn't help, however you have to think he will be a fair price given the layoff. This is one you have to have faith in the trainer that the horse will fire, I really like Baffert these days, he has figured out how to train for synth.

It's been a while but Baffert lost with both Captain Steve and Silver Charm coming back from Dubai. Both lost at very short prices in their returns.

NT

Obviously, it isn't ideal having a horse making their return in a grade 1 off of a 3+ month layoff, I'm not really a believer in the Dubai curse thing anyway, this will be a good test for Rail Trip carrying 123.

I've never been one to think Richard's Kid coming into any race off any sort of layoff is an ideal situation.

The layoff is secondary to his ability.

They talk about a fast pace, dont see it, Compari will go out fairly moderate and Tres Berrachos will stalk and try to get first run in front of rail trip. I bet rail trip opens up 5 into the stretch before Richards Kid starts passing the tiring horses.

Baffert Interview
 

No way, a trainer entering a horse in a GI race is confident about their chances.

That was enlightening.

NT