what does that mean, seemingly wasn't right? and what exactly is a mystery ailment?

He was finished before he hit the turn and was much further back than simply an off race and was sent to the clinic because they thought something was wrong with him 4 weeks ago. They couldnt determine the source of the problem but there was certainly an issue to have sent him. McLaughlin was very open about it. Remember that Rags to Riches was given a thumbs up by new Bolton center right before she broke down. There is rarely such a thing as just an off day without some kind of physical issue however minor.

If he had been shipped to a clinic in the past month to look for an issue it would be more likely. I would also doubt that he would run unless 100% given the amount of **** that would be throw Assmussens way if he were to break down.

perhaps there was a physical issue, but he is also not proven out to be able to run that fast and sustain it through the second turn. either way, i won't be playing him any time soon.

He won the Met Mile where they went much faster fractions, I'm sure if the second turn or distance were the issue he would have made it further than six furlongs before stopping so badly. Why is it so implausable that he has some kind of physical issue especially considering that his recent past?

yeah you're right. a mystery illness is the only possible explanation. case closed.

ASide from mystery ailment or going bad during the race, the only other explanation is he got classed down real bad by running inside Curlin for a half. That's possible I guess. But DP is a pretty nice horse. They don't generally quit that bad that early unless there's a reason.

Reminded me of Daheer in the Donn this year.

Where is there a defense? He missed a month of works and was sent to a clinic to get checked out. In his next start he gets beat 25 lengths. This is a defense? It looks to me to be logical that something was amiss instaed of blaming the distance which is a whole 220 yards further than his grade 1 win. If Curlin wasnt 100% I'm sure we would have heard about it.

Yeah your right, he was 25 lengths short of his best distance

http://www.drf.com/news/article/96423.html

Divine Park, the Metropolitan Handicap winner, is also nominated to the Whitney, but trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Wednesday that he is leaning toward waiting for the Woodward on Aug. 30.

McLaughlin said he would make a final decision after Divine Park works this weekend.

"We're probably going to go to the Woodward, but he if he works 47, 59, 1:12 he might go in the Whitney," McLaughlin said.

Divine Park has only worked once since beating Commentator in the Met. He was sent to the Mid-Atlantic Equine Clinic earlier this week for a bone scan that didn't reveal any abnormalities.



McLaughlin said Divine Park had missed a couple of works following the Met Mile and had taken a little bit longer than usual to warm up prior to his morning training. McLaughlin said Divine Park was to arrive in Saratoga on Wednesday and train regularly up to the Woodward.




Then he gets beat by 25. And I'm am the one promoting shaky theories?

I may no longer reply to some of your posts. That sickle n hammer deal is intimidating.

I think it is ridiclous to compare the two. I am sure that I know more about what is going on with Divine Park, Curlin, etc than the press or 99.9% of the public or even the backside. There are lots of things that I know about both horses and a lot of other things that you wont see printed or said yet I can't make a lot of those things public out of respect of the sources. Your insinuation that I am giving DP a break yet I am picking on Curlin because of my affilation with one is not only insulting it is idiotic. I said that I didn't think that Curlins race was very special which seemingly was obvious. I also pointed out that DP has had unresolved issues recently which seemed like a likely source of his poor race. Where anything personal comes out of it is beyond me. Arl Jim is the one who dismissed DP as unable to go two turns or the distance and seemed somehow insulted that I pointed out that he more than likely had a physical problem.

BTW- if Curlin DID have an issue coming out of the race it would not be shocking...

Come on Hoss'...if your opinion and CS's opinion don't match you can't blame him because he may be an "insider"....of course he has more info than we do and I think Chuck has proven that he doesn't post from his heart.

And yes..I'm obviously biased

I won't speak to the "personal connection" aspect, but I do see your point. However, be that as it may, do you not really see the difference between the two? While the personal connection might cloud one person's judgement, that can cut both ways.

I see the two in completely different ways. I too wouldn't be shocked if Curlin came out of the race with "something" but that's neither here nor there.

Eric

Please display your intellegence and show us where pointing out that a horse most likely has physical issues is a defense. Do you think I care what you and jim think about the horse or any horse? What difference would it make to anyone? Point out one occasion where I have ever touted this horse or said anything overly positive about him. All I did was point out the FACT that the horse has had some issues that have led to the PUBLIC acknowledgement that he visited a clinic because of those issues which were unresolved. A career worst performance following that visit surely would make such a sharp racing mind like yours to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that perhaps something is still amiss. However i was mistaken as you are convinced that I personally am trying to defend the horse using this information in some crazy theory. You know who I am yet I have no idea who you are but you feel it is your right to make insinuations followed by backhanded apologies like the one above. Being an "insider" is hardly a bad thing and if you can't understand that knowing things that aren't privy to the public doesnt make me any better than anyone else but it does give me a far greater pool of information to form opinions on then the problem is yours.

Your insinuation was misguided and despite providing links and quotes to back an extremely plausible theory, you continued to assume that the only reason that I was saying anything was because of my connection with the horse. You actually were the one who rushed to AJ's defense when I pointed out that perhaps physical issues were more to blame for the horses poor race than the distance or two trns and he replied as if I was making something up.

Is it correct to assume that Divine Park's entry into the Woodward had more to do with the Owner's intentions to run rather than the Trainer's? I would be surprised Mclaughlin would run a horse of this caliber if he was less than 100% which he most likely was by his non race Saturday, something's not right here, Mclaughlin is simply too good a trainer to run a suspect horse.

perhaps they went by the clean bill of health given by the clinic, while ignoring what the horse was indicating?

kinda like how coal play ran huge at monmouth and BB didnt look "the same" but still ran him down.

The Haskell and Woodward looked really similar to me. BB ran a much faster time but Saratoga seems like a much slower track (especially at 1 1/8) than Monmouth.

I hear you there, however I am a big believer in Trainer's normal patterns when handicapping. Maybe to a fault, there are some trainer's that have enough influence to not run even against owner's wishes. I think Mclaughlin is one of those Trainer's with a big enough reputation to do as he wishes, really I am confused why he was quoted as he fully expected Divine Park to run huge Sat, when all indications now seem to point the horse wasn't right. Some will say never listen to Trainers, they are full of $%$ but from my experience I have used comments to positive results before, either laying off horses or betting them.

What? Curlin ran on dirt 2x last fall, and in the Stepehn Foster. The Nad al Sheba track is a mix of dirt and synthetic so you can call it what you want.

I think the Bottom line is Curlin has looked rather ordinary his last 2 races, I hinted at this after his turf race, many dismissed it to the surface; however my reasoning was he had a great trip sitting off the leaders and really had no excuse for a horse of his stature to not pick them up down the lane, given the conditions of the race were written to him to a Tee. I would be surprised if this horse has many more races left in him and retirement as Chuck hinted can't be far off.

He was talking about the runner up.

I think Curlin's figure is a little high, but not grossly so. The Spinaway on Sunday appears to be inflated about 10 points. The pace was very hot and there was no running going on the last furlong at all.

Actually his last three races have been pretty ordinary, the Foster wasn't anything special either.

I hope for his handlers' sake he's fine but I have been very underwhelmed lately.

You sure about the bolded part?

You bring up something very interesting, when the discussion of great horses comes up or more particular "Cigar". I never believed he got enough credit for staying at that high level for that amount of time as he did. Though it is a fair arguement his competition was not the strongest during his streak, his numbers were very consistent, was he as fast as Ghostzapper? No. But in fairness to Cigar had Ghostzapper ran the exact same campaign as Cigar did, I doubt he would have been as brilliant as Cigar was. It's an Apples and oranges argument.

Cigar was also much faster than Curlin on a regular basis...

The Classic and the Dubai World Cup were extremely impressive to me, otherwise he's been merely very good and very consistent.

He can't be, because it wasn't true when he ran.

Couldn't it be that he runs best when the most money is on the line? Obviously the horse doesn't know this, but the trainer certainly does.

Certainly.

I also think Curlin is an extremely intelligent horse, who knows how much needs to be done, kind of like Cigar was. He takes instruction from the rider extremely well...

In Bailey's book, he mentioned Cigar was a very intelligent animal. I think Bailey put the brakes on him many a time, and that may have contributed to his longevity. Cigar was a beautifully well built horse, certainly not a fragile one. That helps also. Which begs the question who knows how fast he could have run if he they were not looking at the big picture.

My first thought watching from Del Mar was something wasnt right with DP. Then, when I watched the replay again and see Garcia look down at his right hind three times in the stretch it certainly makes you wonder if something wasn't right.

At least that's the view from this non-insider.

Like I predicted before this race, I think Ass has been juicing his horses with a lot less frequency lately. It's been awhile since any of his horses ran like they were possessed by demons, and that Curlin will probably look pretty mortal.

In my opinion, he's a very nice horse that was running juiced out of his mind for most of the last year to year and a half.