so true! always good for a huge laugh. Remember how FCC was 50/50 to be in the trifecta??:D

Curlin can get better.
He ran a very uneven race.
This is a very good horse.

unbalanced around the final bend, took his time to get going.. defo not the finished article just yet..

East
Chicago over Detroit in six but could be five. They will dominate.
Cleveland over NJ in six.

West
Golden St. over Houston or Utah in five (pending Davis' health). They can win without him though but it would take seven.
Phoenix over San Antonio in six.


The king is not doing so well in basketball either.
He did nail Cleveland. 1 out of 4 aint bad.
But he never took me up on any San Antonio bets.
Had Denver beating them, then Phoenix.

Street Sense's trademark explosive far turn move and his habits through the final 1/8th made Curlin's race look "uneven" to the naked eye---It wasn't in my opinion.

He's a big well made horse who always runs a very even race.

If he comes out OK, You got your Belmont favorite. I think he has the potential to run a long way very fast. A tough compact muscular beast. A little green, but a competitor no doubt.

I just watched the tape again. He can get better. He changes strides and pace. Even as far as time maybe, but not strides. This horse can improve form, I really believe that. He used energy in uneccesary spots.

Instead of wasting breath talking about what didn't happen in this fabulous race, why not spend a few minutes analyzing the chart and figure out what DID happen:

http://www.drf.com/drfPDFChartRacesI...20070519&RN=12

Because when you do, you'll discover a pair of real racehorse performances..

When they came together at the head of the stretch, Street Sense had made up 12 lengths in a quarter mile.. a :22.4-:23.0 move.. Maybe it will occur to the 'hung' crowd why he 'didn't finish'.. And Curlin himself made up 9 lengths going the same quarter in :23.3.. (Before that, he had made the third quarter in :23.1...)

And neither stopped running for the next 3.75 of a mile.. THEY FINISHED IN :18.4 a head apart... Street Sense in :41.4 and Curlin in :42.2...

This was a throwback race with two unbelievable efforts.. What we pray for in this game..

twas a belter of a race.. so many talking points but at the end, two outstanding colts.. not bad for a crop people said lacked a star!

Uneven, how?

:24.2
:23.2
:23.1
:23.3
:18.4

1:53.2

That "hung crowd" includes Street Sense's jockey.

I agree though, a terrific race with a disappointing (to the fan in me) result.

I have to say it was great to see those two go at it.

I'm looking forward to Belmont more than I would be for Triple Crown potential. Rubber match between these two with Hard Spun looking to make ammend and Rags a possibility.

I love it.

Technically, that one was correct. And also, Curlin was my pick to win the Preakness so I wasn't all the way wrong.

Look at the tape. Those are times. The horse goes hard and cruises and goes hard. A horse can run even times for two furlongs and still change speed WITHIN those two furlongs. I am looking at the movement of the horse's body. And I have looked at it again. The horse can run more evenly. I am very excited. I think the horse can get better.

Joe,

That's what he said seconds after the race.. When he goes over the tape of the race and absorbs the fractions, it'll be obvious. They both gutted it out to the wire, barely slowing. One wins, one loses.. Street Sense got the bob over Any Given Saturday at Tampa and loses this one to Curlin.

I think because we don't see horses race like we used to, there's an immediate jump to conclusion that a beaten horse did something to 'get beat'. This is a similar line of thinking that had peoplew wanting to dismiss Bernardini off the BCC loss. If we see MORE matchups of the horses we love as often we should, we'd be more inclined to take the win, or loss, for what it is, and start anticipating the next one. But because we aren't sure we'll ever get the matchup again, there's a quick conclusion...

Well hell, I'm excited...

That had to be the most exciting finish since Silver Charm's Preakness, I think.

I see what you're talking about.. But he's a big, powerful, rangy colt.. might just be what you're going to get with him...

Boy your right, DrugS couldnt have had it more right unless he had written his post AFTER the race!! I mean dead on. Unfortunately. :( I wanted Street to win. But what a race huh?

It was unbelievable!!! And u are so right. "Us" as racing fans should be standing up cheering both of these horses. Thank you Street and Curlin!! makes ya mouth water to see what comes the rest of the year doesnt it?

Maybe I need to watch the replay a few more times, but it seems to me that 99 times out of 100, when a horse the caliber of Street Sense passes another horse in the final 1/4 mile, the race is over. It looked to me like Street Sense quit. I don't know if "hung" is the right word, because I usually think of that word when a horse makes a move to reach contention, and then has nothing left for the real fight. I think Street Sense thought the fight was over.

I don't think Borel cost Street Sense the race, but I have to question why Pino moved so early on Hard Spun. I think he could have been right there at the wire with a more patient move. (Note that I have only seen the replay once).

It also looked like Curlin was not totally comfortable during the race. It was as if he was relaxed, then rushed, then relaxed, then all out. But maybe that was just an illusion.

Bottom line, I think Street Sense wins that race at least 6 times out of 10.

For the record.. the splits..

CURLIN

:24.2
:23.2
:23.1
:23.3
:18.4

1:53.2


STREET SENSE

:24.3
:23.2
:23.3
:23.0 <= !!!
:18.4

1:53.2

This could be a very exciting year if these guys come out OK. This was really a good race. And I had no money, Im sad to see we will not have a TC winner. ANd I think Nafzger, being the horseman that he is, will keep SS out of the Belmont and look forward.

Note the <=...

As Andy Serling said months ago after the Tampa race, Street Sense is a rail running son of a gun... There's a big difference in making that move in the 4th quarter on the rail and in the fourth quarter 3-4 paths out. And that difference is certainly more than the short head he lost by today. You can say he 'hung', but it's a silly description for a horse that is actually just lacking the late punch in the final strides because of the effort he put out earlier in the race.

The fact is that that quarter mile move had been enough in half his races to put away ALL the competition. Today he ran into a better horse who was in reality running almost the identical race as him.. Better by the length of his muzzle.

Two supremely talented horses.. A rare treat these days...

SS got lucky in the Derby. He had a dream trip while Curlin had a nightmare ride.

Street Sense had nothing left.

Curlin didn't hang -- he motored by and tied the Preakness record. A better jock and he would have been the Derby champ too.

My Thoughts
 

This was the type of race you wish most big races were. The only question about Curlin was whether his inexperience would show and how much heart he has. He proved it today.

I wanted Street Sense to win. I think if you put him in with the horses from many of the recent years, he wins the Triple Crown. I think if the race was a little longer, Street Sense comes back at Curlin.

I think Pino moved Hard Spun that soon in the race to see if he could take the heart out of the horses. These horses do not lack heart. I hope we see them all in the coming months and especially in the Breeders' Cup.

How did I do today? I had bets on all three horses on top of exotics. Luckily, my bet (the 9th of 10) with Curlin on top, basically a saver bet, was the superfecta. I guess if you ask yourself "What if?" enough times, you'll come up with the right answer.

It certainly was a brilliant race to savour.. I went down to my friend's to watch it (who had cable!) and my friend and his parents were absolutely enthralled by the end of it.. That's the way it should be..

Pretty sure that Larry Jones wasn't at the Preakness to "take the heart out of the horses." I highly doubt that Pino was advised to take that approach.

I didn't say it was the wisest move by Pino. Maybe he thought he had more horse than he had. Or, maybe he thought he didn't have enough horse unless he made that move. I doubt it was in the instructions from Jones.

It was definitely a boneheaded ride by Pino. I doubt Hard Spun wins, but he sure could have been closer. Oh well... I hope they opt to skip the Belmont with Hard Spun.

I hope they give him a rest and bring him back in the fall with a new jockey.

I'm no Albarado fan, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

Ill have to second that. Too many horses and too much to overcome that had nothing to do with Albarado.

Oh good gosh they have to. 4 weeks and two races that this horse has been pushed very hard.

Maybe hung is not the best description. But there is definitely something going on that's sort of a pattern. There may be valid excuses of why a horse seems to let up a little once he gets the lead. Maybe it's the result of thinking the race is over. Or it could be for the reason u gave today, that the strong move he put in earlier took away some of his late punch. Whatever the reason, valid or not, that doesn't take away from the fact that it's happened to him on a number of occassions. The racing form comments for those two races last year were "no winning bid" and "weakened". I don't know what it will be for today's race but he had the race won and then he didn't. It reminded me of Perfect Drift in the Whitney against Roses in May. Perhaps today was just getting outrun by a very good horse. No disgrace or shame in that. Could the key be to wait even longer with him than they usually do? Maybe he's the kind of horse that u want to time his move to where he didn't the front till the wire. Maybe they need to bring Eddie Delahoussaye out of retirement to ride him. I don't know what the answers are or what the reasons are but I would wonder if it might not be kind of disturbing to his people that he's had a problem finishing some races off. In nine career starts, he's given it up late in at least a third of them.

99 out of 100 is about right.

The horse was 8th after a 1/4 mile, 8th after a half mile, 7th after 3/4's (and always behind Curlin) He leaves him for dead on the far turn...and has a 1 1/2 length lead at the stretch call according to the chart....it was a much much more extreme case than the Tiznow/Sakhee example in the Breeders Cup Classic a few years back.

I sent Kiri's Clown a six hour tape of some great horse races from the last 20 years---he should have the tape by Monday or Tuesday---I added Street Cry's 2-year-old races with Flame Thrower....I couldn't find his UAE Derby loss.

I think you guys will notice a lot of similarites between SS and his sire, when you see them on Youtube.

In both of his losses to Flame Thrower, the speed figure came back giant, if not the fastest runnings of the Norfolk and Del Mar Futurity of all-time, they're certainly among the top two or three on figures.

Delivered to us by one of racing on the internets' top trolls...

you are so right. that race was worth the price of admission. So many races get a big build-up then turn out to be ho-hum affairs. Not this one.

I have a feeling I am going to regret asking this, but what is a "troll"?

I kind of see where u are going with this. I think. It looked to me like Pino was thinking that it was time to win that race and win it NOW. He knew how Street Sense had blown by him in the Derby. He knew how much ground Curlin made up in the lane in Kentucky. The way for him to win the race was not by outrunning them in the lane. I felt he made the right move at the right time. Open up on them and make them make a decision. At the time he made his move, Curlin and SS were starting to get into the race. If he waits longer, I don't think he could have opened up the necessary ground on them to be able to hold them off in the lane. By making the move when he did, I think he was trying to dictate to them that they better go now too or else he might be gone. Maybe that would take away some of their late punch too. Personally, I feel like that was Hard Spun's only chance to win the race was by going when he did.