His performance last time was terrific. No doubt. And, I have no problem with the assertion that he might prove a very good horse. But, and I know you will agree with this, the rest of his resume leaves a lot to be desired. Personally, I am always suspect of horses that have one explosive performance, out of relative nowhere, after a few OK to mediocre ( and in Divine Park's case....poor ) performances. To me, they need to stay sound and replicate these races a few times before I am sold. We have simply seen too many flashes in the pan over the years to get all excited after one " great " performance. I hope Divine Park has more to come, and will be FAR from surprised if he wins Monday, but his resume leaves too much to be desired, overall, to right now suggest he is a better horse than Commentator, given what that one has done many times in his career. Sure, Divine Park has more upside. It's May of his 4YO year whereas Commentator is an oft injured 7YO. However, Divine Park has a lot of proving to do to show that he is a better horse.

Including First Defence is what really makes the whole discussion laughable and exposes that the opinion is nothing more than a biased argument against Commentator. Hey, who knows, he's a young 4YO as well, and trained by a great trainer, so anything is possible. But, based on what he has done, it is virtually impossible that he will ever have a resume even mildly comparable, in any way, to Commentator. Who knows, maybe he too will beat Commentator on Monday, but he will still be left with a great deal to do to even remotely compare favorably to the 7YO.

No doubt about it: First Defence is a PUNK. Nothing else to say about him.

And, DP will have to go a long way to remove the clinkers in SA and LRL from my mind. Hard to reconcile his race at KEE, the one against C P West, and his last performance with the two poor performances.

With that said: if DP replicates his last race, he beats the old horse.

You get no major argument from me. Unless Commentator runs his A race he won't beat Divine Park's last race. Tough for any old timer to do.

LOL, silly Hooves. That's Jerry Brown's line!

i agree. a mile might be commentators undoing at this point in his career. the short field with no pace is his best hope though. divine park has gotten good and he has probably the best trainer around. i don't think his last race was a perfect set up. i think he pissed all over that field.

When Monterey Jazz was in this race I was about as excited to bet this race as I have been since Pyro was the huge favorite in the Blue Grass. Now that he is out and there won't be any pace at all I have no interest in wagering a penny or in even watching it live. I'll catch the replay later and find something else to do while the race is being run. Fun to turn what is usually one of the races I'm most excited in each year into a walkover.

If they go 44 plus for the half and Commentator is on the lead it is over. He's undefeated when going 44+ in a sprint or 46+ in a route and on the lead and winless when that hasn't been the case.

Then why aren't you betting out on Commentator?

He'll be 2/5 against that field. When I thought there was going to be a Premium Wine/Lord Snowdon exacta it was an exciting proposition to make that much money. To bet on a 2/5 or an even money favorite does nothing for me. It was the whole prospect of both him and Monterey Jazz being vastly overbet and finishing off the board that intrigued me.

He might not be the favorite. But, either way, at least you won't be losing money on that absurd exacta you suggested. You might want to take a careful look at the pps for the 3rd at Belmont tomorrow to see both how bad a race the Carter was and how unreliable the fig is.

Lord Snowden? That's funny. Have you even heard of Divine Park?

I was hoping for a balls to the wall style pace duel between the big two that would suck all the stalkers in and set up perfectly for those plodders. Of course I'd have played Divine Park with then. But the scenario of those two bums coming in one-two with both favorites off the board for a monster payout is what had me interested in the race. Now we are looking at a small field where Commentator, at short odds, looks unbeatable which is just no fun for me to bet.

You so desperately want Commentator to lose that you are completely ignoring that he may well not be the favorite so that should he lose it will be even easier to dump on him.

It may be late, but I'm not falling for that routine.

Actually I like Commentator but knowing his tendencies makes him as good a favorite to bet against in the sport with the right horses entered against him. Let's face it, we all make less when the favorite finishes in the trifecta since 92% of tickets include the favorite. So I like to find the races that the favorite is susceptible to finishing off the board so that the 25% of the time when that happens I can capitalize on being part of the 8% of tickets that have that happening. If nothing else, I've at least learned that much from Crist.

Oh Yeah

And Durkin's call made it all the sweeter: "And here comes First Defence, confidently ridden".

Good call.

You also hit 10 on
the humility scale.

How much ya make?

You must have cleaned up, getting a 7/1 shot out of the money like that. McLaughlin should send Frankel some champagne, as First Defence did all the dirty work.

Are you one of his supporters?

And, why is hooking a horse ENTERING the STRETCH, doing the dirty work?

Who forced Commentator into the :44 and change half? Kiss the Kid?

Either Johnny V or Commentator himself.

At least we learned that you were right that First Defence is a better horse than Commentator.

Commentator was terrific today. The rest? Divine Park was OK.