I couldn't disagree more. In current form Anew would bury LITF who is the one who needs things easy on the front end. IMO when the Fog steps up and runs against this caliber of horse he'll be staggering in the stretch.

You Geld a horse..you divorce a man. Same thing!

Buffy, the dirt was speed-favoring, not the turf...

This post just reminds me the kinda short-term memory racing fans have...whoever is the last horse they saw win a stakes is their lock to win a BC race. Bordonaro, Friendly Island, Carthage, LITF, Kelly's Landing, Gaff, a bunch of fast 3-year-old sprinters, and now all of a sudden, Anew is the best sprinter in the country off of one stakes victory.

It's strange how one person says "Anew might be the best sprinter in the country", then another person will ask why people think Anew is the best sprinter in the country. Might be means just that, you need to consider this horse now seriously in the sprint division, not based on one stakes wins but one four consecutive routes since being gelded.

Also LITF and Kellys Landing are not three year old sprinters.

I agree. Class is overrated as a factor basically because my defnition of class and a lot of other people's definition varies.
Horses change in apearance, ability and form based on variables like who is training them, blinkers on or off, being gelded, being tried on different surfaces, etc. I'm sorry but I simply don't care about Anew's history. All I know and see is a horse who is very fast and jusy smoked som every nice sprinters who were left gasping and in awe at his talent. hes not a cheap speed horse either. In his prior race he outgamed a very game Tiger and still own in a dogfight and he has won while rating near the lead and finishing well.
Whats class? Is class that some moron pays a million dollars for a yearling? Does that make the horse classy?
Is Lava man not just oozing with class and courage? he was claimed for 50 grand and quite frankly thats ancient history.
What matters is a horses current form and ability. Ryan Leaf was a number two overall pick, Tim Couch a number one overall. Joe Montana I believe was a 6th rounder(somewhere in that area). yet on the field he was the guy with the class. Compare that with a situation where some numbskull declares a well bred or expensive horse to have more class than the reformed fifty claimer. Its simply nonsense.

It's curious to me how many horse's from Anew's barn have been running exceptionally well lately. There must be like an anti-virus in the barn.

[quote=ateamstupid]Buffy, the dirt was speed-favoring, not the turf...




I was being sarcastic. Sorry should have put more smilies in there.

I don't know that they knew exactly what they had after they gelded him. They ran him back first time at 25 non2 life. To me he looks like a horse who just got good. I also think that Asmussen was very smart to skip running back in the race that Tiger won after their last confrontation. He brought a fresher horse to Saturday's race.

Is " fresher " a euphemism?

Do you know why they gelded him Oracle? I watched the races at 2am on Saturday when I got home from Orlando. I don't remember if they said why they gelded him. Was it a health problem or was he "filly-minded"?

Doesnt Anew remind you of a few horses Scott Lake improved dramatically in recent history, most notably Don Six? I mean the similarities between Anew and Don Six are startling! Both are former claimers who love the Aqu Inner track yet made the transition to be competitive on other tracks. Don Six ran a very game race in defeat in last year's Carter, losing to 2 very special horses in Forest Danger and Medalist. The other horses being Thunderello and My Cousin Matt, both of which Lake got to run huge races in BC Sprints.

Maybe Asmussen is taking notes from Lake on how to improve sprinters.

I predict Anew will retreat to the sidelines very soon.

Well it could be, lol.

Anew was gelded. That is a huge reason for improvement in some horses. Don't think there is any "questionable" actions going on with this horse. Sounds like he was a headcase and gelding him fixed that problem. He is an Awesome Again so it isn't like it is some cheap horse that got fast for no reason.

I have no idea to be completely honest. Like I said I don't see this as a "Lake" type improvement. Its not like he claimed the horse and immediately jumped the horse up. They claimed him, he looked like total wreck of a claim, and they may have gelded him out of desperation. Even after that they ran him back cheaply and he got good.
I always get a kick out of those who accuse any trainer who is a claiming trainer or former claiming trainer who gets a horse sharp as being a suspicious character. Funny that if you train for the rich and prominent and get hot with horses, you are just a good horseman(these guys wear suits and speak nicely to the press so they must just be good horsemen). Its a ridiculous double standard.

Here is your answer

"He was a lunatic before we gelded him and he's still a lunatic, but he's a little better now."

reminded me of bc sprint winner artax........:cool:

Fact is if you liked this horse before Saturday's race,then you got paid.Don't think you get paid much ever again for playing him.I now leave him for the chalk addicts,and move on.

Way to read.

I listed a bunch of fast older sprinters, then said, in addition to that, "a bunch of fast 3-year-old sprinters."

Im curious as to what Afrashad's beyer was...had to be pretty nice.