Maybe Hank Goldberg will show up for the Belmont in a kimono and commit hari-kari.

I thought he was a salty winner as well

Again it was a good effort, I'm not saying it wasn't a good effort. I think it is always healthy to pose the question a day after the race who a horse beats and what type of trip they got. When I first saw the race live yesterday I was also pretty gung ho impressed about the performance. Afterall he is bred to run all day and this cetainly sets him up for the Belmont. Today my analysis is somewhere between both a good performance over a mediocre field and trying to weigh both factors.

We had two route races yesterday that were terrific in terms of final time.

The maiden in the 5th(UH) who got loose on the lead, and ran a very fast 8.5furlongs,
and the newcomer in the Peter Pan(CD) who ran the very fast 9furlongs.

Either you have to go and say "both of these were extremely good final times", or you can claim the track had more influence, and make a safer estimate.

You assume more responsibility, if you say both fast races on the same day/track where both among the year's leaders.

Hence the low scores

st liam also ran under another trainers name, perhaps dutrows assitant? dutrow was serving at one point for 2 drug and 1 claim violation-that's separate from the wild desert violation. he's had so many, i guess they can all run together after a while.

Good point UH ran a fast race for a Mdn Sp Wt. I don't think the track was playing overly fast yesterday. The Bold Ruler seemed like it was run in a fair time. Which gives more credence to CD's backers.

Why is he going to be better in 4 weeks? Just because. It was a very nice start to his US career.. I was impressed but I have no clue why or how you can think he is going to be better in 4 weeks.. Will he be better in 3 weeks or 6 weeks or just 4? My point is not to be a jerk it's just I don't get why we should figure anything about the colt. It's not like we understand or have stats on the trainer which suggest second off a layoff is when his colts do there best running..do we? He ran well he beat garbarge and ran a solid BSF.. Lets see and hope.. I will say if the mare gets 3 Belmont winners in row it is a feat that defines any logic, especially with one of the 3 being a filly.

Looking forward to the 2012 Belmont when Giant RAG (Giants Causeway- Rags to Riches and named for my first wife) comes to the Belmont the M/L fave

He stands to be better in 4 weeks from a conditioning point of view. Don't need the trainer stats. They did very little with him preparing for this race and really did NOT expect the kind of effort he produced. That comes from the racing manager as the trainer's English is useless. And friends at Belmont who have watched him jog have very positive impressions. Should simply be in better shape in June then he was yesterday.

exactly, racing fitness is why he could be better next month.

Yet another made up number, if the 99 or 101 reported versus the 100 for Unbridled's Heart are accurate. They're just not in line which what is correct for 8.5F versus 9F at Belmont, which is 6.75 seconds for "average" types (20K claimers). So Casino Drive's time of 5.75 seconds higher than Unbridled's Heart should be 6.3 lengths faster, or about 9 Beyer points at that distance. I don't buy the "track sped up" for the last two races one bit.

How can anyone believe these figures these days when they're so obviously manipulated???

St. Liam ran in Bobby Frankel's name in the Foster, although there were people from Dutrow's stable (one of the Rodriguez's) there with the horse in the paddock that afternoon.

Horse racing is a joke. The suspensions are comical. Let me guess where the majority of the trainer's share went for that race.

I thought I had it right when I said he ran under BF in the Foster-and of course when Wild Desert was mentioned, I thought maybe I was combining several happenings under one name...at any rate, it isn't just speculation that Dutrow was/is a cheat.

All true........and he won't have the little shipping and quarantine issues as well. This horse kind of reminds me of an AP Indy horse I loved, Snake Mountain. That horse always looked like he could be a jumper - I don't know, something about him struck me as such - and Casino Drive is so long and just has that look of an endurance horse (like those paintings of horses from the 1600's).

Someone on another board mentioned that CD runs on his "forehands", which he explained meant that he runs mostly on his front legs......I guess that's not good, but it works for him.

God, I hope not ... LOL