It only bothers him in routes. Obviously

:D


I'll go with 15.

That looks like a rubber band type tie instead of a big plastic ball - and his hair seems a lot shorter where it can't reach his eyeball there.

This silly stuff is an area where I shouldn't bother with - but again, maybe it wouldn't bother a horse to have a plastic ball hitting his eye over and over while he runs... but I know it would bother a human big time.

If that didn't bother Quality Road .. he ran an absolutely disgraceful race today - and Musket Man is without question the better horse off of that performance.

Clearly, MM didn't get the best of trips, with Dominguez not keeping his end of the bargain. But how does MM's race in the Whitney, off the poor trip, fit in with his perfect trip in the Met? Wasn't he 'chasing' slow fractions today? And, wasn't he also the 3rd best horse going into the race?

Is it harder to chase slow fractions than to pass 2 horses that have set them?

I thought Musket Man had a total dream trip in the Met Mile - and I gave him no chance today.

When Dominguez didn't hold up his end of the bargain - and Ravij started riding the ears off of Musket Man and was a couple paths wider the entire way around the first turn ... I would have bet anything that he was going to run like total ratsh!t. He was basically totally sacrfacing his horse in an effort to put what minimal pace pressure on QR he could muster.

QR's race today was just breathtakingly bad. I know the pace wasn't quite as slow as it might seem because the track was a little more deep and tiring than par ... but he had the race handed to him on a golden platter and still couldn't outfinish an insanely poorly ridden Musket Man.

I thought Blame had the better trip than Musket Man. I thought Quality Road had the much better trip than Blame.

For this to be true, MM's run has to have an impact on Blame's run. Which means that MM's run has to affect QR's run. But this never happened. MM huffed and puffed but he never threatened QR at any point in the race. MM never got close enough to do this. Blame's run was, essentially, unaided.

Musket Man ran like he was attempting to act as Blame's rabbit .. parked out wide the entire way around the first turn while being ridden.

The last time he was 2nd or better after a quarter mile in race - he finished 3rd in the 2009 Sam Davis Stakes at Tampa going 8.5fs ... the horrendous 33/1 shot Sumo easily ran past him in the stretch that day and finished 3 lengths in front of him.

I probably need to watch more cycling - but I'm sorry, he got a truly idiotic ride and was taken out of his game. How he wasn't beaten a lot further leaves me suspicious of this race.

A braid hitting/bouncing around can't be that much more annoying than a tongue tied outside the mouth. Horses are smart and notice things, but I doubt stuff like that really affects their performance.

Maragh was only doing what he had to because Dominguez tried to get cute and work out a stalking trip. Not only MM but Blame, as well, was forced to run earlier than he might've wanted to. Clearly, Gomez is pushing him along on the backstretch. To say that Musket Man affected QR early is to say that Fatal Bullet affected Hollywood Hit last out and set the race up for Smokey Fire. Hollywood Hit is 2 ahead out of the gate while Fatal Bullet's jock is pumping away just to keep up. There's never any point in the race where FB causes HH to do something he doesn't want to.

If you want to say that QR just didn't fire, and Blame was a fortunate recipient, I can somewhat understand this. Of course, Hollywood Hit ran insane fractions and never changed leads, while QR got away with a slow pace and just couldn't hold on.

Blame proved best today and since this is about as good as it gets in terms of setups for QR, I suspect he will best that one again should they meet in the future.

Quality Road is a very talented horse capable of winning at any time. If he were to meet Blame and win next go round it certainly would not shock anyone. Today was just not his day. Only great horses find the wire every time regardless of any excuses.

So, I guess horses like Man o/war and Secretariat (to name but a few) were not great horse? And, please, I'm not comparing QR to the Big Reds - just addressing the comment.

Ok, almost every time.

You're talking about directly on an eye ball though.

If you go up to a horse in its stall and take the butt end of the whip and poke or slap at its eyeball I would think the horse might get annoyed.

won't have a rematch til the classic, with blame going to the jcgc next, and quality road pointing for the woodward. wonder where musket man will go next? they plan to keep him long, so his eventual target appears to be the classic as well.
blame certainly is the number one horse in the country now, with his win over what many considered the biggest threat in the handicap division. i have to think that the longer distance will suit blame even more, while it will be a bigger hurdle for quality road.