I don't see how Eaton's Gift winning the Gotham is going to settle anything.

Giant Moon = Lawrence the Roman...without the inflated figs.

Giant Moon had sweet trips and was able to handle Spanky Fishbien in photos. Icabad Crane is a better horse.

I think you are discounting Spanky Fishbein too easily. You must not realize that he was trying to cut into a final quarter that was just under 27 seconds.

I think Spanky Fishbein could win an Eclipse and it would still sound insulting to handle him in a photo.

will see..and gm does not need to win just run well

Matt-O,

He does have to do something in the Gotham/Wood.. He has no graded earnings yet.

Why would he need graded earnings from the Gotham when 1st place in the Wood is going to net him $450,000?

It happens that this is a year with some very nice NY Bred 3YOs and hopefully they will stick around for some competitive racing later in the year. Rick Schosberg probably doesn't have a bigger fan than me, and I would love to see him have a good horse, but Giant Moon is nothing more than a reasonably talented horse who has very little chance of beating even decent good horses.

I'm sure Rick will do as good a job as possible with Giant Moon. It won't be enough in any TC preps or TC races and I think they will realize that sooner than later. If the Gotham is run on a fair track, with a fairly run race, Giant Moon figures to more than have his hands full.

I use .16 per beaten length and using that as a guide, I get his final quarter in 25.32

I'm almost positive that I can walk it that fast.

You should be a race horse then since the horse you have as the 4th best since 1986 finished the exact same race in 26 1/5.

The 2004 Southwest was run in 2004. The 2008 edition was just run a few days ago. I'm not sure at all what one has to do with the other? Did they run the same opening fractions? Did they run against the same kind of competition? Were the riders of both asking them the same question down the lane? Also, whether or not Smarty ran it in 26 1/5 or 35 1/5 is beside the point. All that you are point out is that both of them finished in slow time. Smarty's time doesn't make Dennis' fast.

Smarty got a 95 Beyer and Denis a 96. Smarty's time was a hair quicker so the track was actually a little faster that day if at all different. Check out the closing fractions of every Southwest. They are all slower than that. Lawyer Ron finished in 26 2/5. Using the closing fractions at Oaklawn as if they are conventional fractions is pointless when, as Steve pointed out, the stretch is uphill.

I agree. I wasn't using the closing fractions to say that he was slow coming home. I was using my eyes. It wouldn't matter to me if the closing fraction was 21 1/5. If I see horses laboring, that's what I'm going to remember, not the fraction.

Also, I'm not sure that this is correct about the Oaklawn stretch and it's come home times. Afleet Alex ran his final 8th of the Arkansas Derby in 11 4/5. Curlin ran his in 12 flat. I don't remember what Smarty's was in the Rebel but it was something crazy fast too. There is no way I believe Alex ran 11 4/5 going uphill. I've always been of the belief that the opposite may be true; that it's slightly downhill which leads to those really fast closing fractions being a little misleading.

"Now the east coast handicappers really dig those picks they share, but the Southern boys down in the Natural State have the winners comin' out of no where." "I 've spent a lot of time tryin' to make my picks but I just can't seem to decide" "I guess I'll just get on back to my racing form and let the other posters help me this time. I wish they all could be Derby Trailer's, I wish they could all be Derby Trailer's, I wish they all could be Derby Trailers who shine.

While I don't want any California contenders, this is to the tune of :California Girls."

Thankya, thankya very much.:cool:
This either breaks my maiden, or gets me thrown out.

I'm not entirely sure what the deal is there but there is certainly a quirk in the closing fractions of the Southwest over the past several years. The Rebel and Arkansas fractions seem more reasonable so I'm not sure what exactly is going on but I know finishing the Southwest in 25 is actually a good finishing time.

That's why I say go with your eyes. If your eyes tell you it was slow, don't let them telling you it was 22 1/5 tell you othewise. By the same token, if your eyes tell it was fast, don't let them telling you it was 27 4/5 tell you otherwise. To be honest, I hadn't any idea what the closing time of the race was. I just know that they looked like they were crawling and Dennis appeared to be the only one running and he wasn't even going fast.