Didn't see your post before I fired away...

My apologies.

And my inclusion of Purge isn't really justified. He didn't do too much.

Slipped that Grade One win in and off to the shed.

There a lot here like that

This comment says it all :tro:

Bunch of crazytalk in this thread.

2004 field was infinitely better than this group...

Just not the belmont champion...or triple crown champion

I miss Smarty :(

Almost felt like the days gone by when he was making his bid for the crown. Wonder if we will ever see that type of enthusiasm again over a horse. Was a really great story all the way around.

It isnt even close no matter how you feel about Big Brown or Smarty Jones. 2004's overall group was undoubtedly faster. Regardless, its not like it would have made too much of a difference in Smarty's fate. His belmont was slow and its not like it took an earth shattering performance to beat him.

you're thinking of ready's image, who I believe is also running Saturday in the Woody Stephens.
Ready's Echo is also a pletcher horse, and seems to actually want more ground. despite being by More than Ready.
He's a deep closer, who showed an explosive turn of foot in his maiden race last summer, and then again in his maiden win this past March.
He just missed in an ill-timed ride by JV in an allowance race at Keenland, and then didn't run until the very end in the Peter Pan.
He's over his head here, and with his running style, 3rd is probably his ceiling, unless Denis or Cork and/or Casino drive both exert too much energy early, then I could see him running up for a non-threatening 2nd.

I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that a More than Ready with Kingmambo as a damsire could travel a route of ground. More than Ready has actually had some pretty significant winners on the grass going long in both Australia and Europe in his short career.

Agree with a lot of you that the field in general was tougher, and the fact that Birdstone won a G1 on this track was huge.

I don't remember that 2004 crop being great, but I guarantee there were more than one or two that had posted 100 Beyers in routes, unlike this year's group.

If this means anything, Jerry Brown of Thorograph has a $25 bet with a TG board member on who hits the finish line first, the member has Big Brown, and Jerry Brown has ANAK NAKAL :)

I may be mis-remembering, but didn't desormeax make quite early moves with Real Quiet in both the KY Derby and Preakness and get away with it?? I'm almost certain at least the Derby was a very early move. Wasn't he just repeating what worked in the first two legs?

I'm anxious to see his babies race. Shouldn't be too long.

It's always good to get disappointment out of the way as quickly as possible.

His ride on Medaglia D'oro wasn't much better, he should have won that year also. At 18-17/1 if my memory serves me correct.