Blackberry Road in FG 8th Thursday
 

Now with ol' Possumhead...


8th (3:46)

1 Mile | Open | 3 Year Olds And Up Allowance | Purse: $44,000

1 Tepin Salsa Patin B C D'Amico, II Lewis J 119 L 20-1
2 Stungbythestorm Bridgmohan S X Asmussen Steven M 117 L 7-2
3 He's the Commander Campbell J M Hoffman Kenneth E 117 L 12-1
4 Black Diamond Bay Thompson T J Jones J Larry 119 L 4-1
5 Master Plan Graham J Stidham Michael 117 L 8-1
6 Blackberry Road Albarado R J Stewart Dallas 117 L 5-2
7 Our Dancer Theriot H J II Autrey Cody 119 L 6-1
8 Zigawatt Valenzuela P A Barnett Bobby C 119 L 15-1
9 A. U. Miner Torres F C Hanna Clark 117 L 6-1

I don't have any numbers in front of me, but Stewart's % with horses routing off a layoff can't be good.

HA....I was just going to add that in the 2 yr. old allowance thread but ya beat me too it.

Friday's card is looking good too.

With Blackberry Road entered in a race the same week that Smooth Air begins to work toward his 4yo campaign, I must say that this is truly an exciting time to be a fan of this sport.

that's the race of the day contest one for tomorrow... I've got the 2

BlackBerry Road raced at the end of the Churchill meet last month and finished a nice 3rd in a 6F first-level allowance.

Hard to back him with still only a maiden win on his resume, but it looks like a pretty good spot.

Dallas' % with horses doing anything, except underacheiving, is not good.

Although they finally put this plotter in a decent spot.


Cots' stable of trainers only rivals his string of expensive maiden claimers.

Ignore the Morty Cipher at your own peril...





Though I'm CONVINCED he thought Gene Autry was aboard his ex box play...

True Christmas gifts for us all.

How'd he do? Is today thursday?

I went with the 8-Black Diamond Bay...:)

lol.. It's been that kind of week for me as well, so don't feel bad.:p

Huge move on the turn. Had me scared for a moment that he might actually blow them away and win. Luckily for me, even though I had temporarily forgotten who he was, HE didn't forget who he was. Flattened out quickly and finished a retreating third.

Did he go off as the fave? I was looking forward to betting against him, but couldnt pull the trigger blindly.

I guess the :49 half and 1:14.3 three-quarters that the winning favorite got away with had nothing to do with the outcome of the race...

I think Steve said it best. Something about 8 jockey brains and they wouldn't make a full brain on this. Lay and wait and think you'regonna reel in the leader? Hey what do I know, my horse last night ran through the fog and while we couldn't se him, some how got a length and a half win in a 24K Allowance at DeD:eek:

It may have but around the far turn, Blackberry had made a huge move and had every chance to go on and win if he was good enough. He wasn't. I'm not into making excuses for horses that are now 1-14. Obviously, with a horse like this, he didn't lose the race because of the fractions. He lost because he doesn't like to win. To use the pace as any sort of excuse for him is, I think, looking for an excuse where there is none. Especially when you look at the horse that finished second in the race. After a 1/2 mile, Our Dancer was in third, about 1 1/2 lengths behind the leader. Blackberry was another 1 1/2 lengths back in fifth. After 6f, Blackberry had gone past Our Dancer. Blackberry was third, 1 1/2 back of the leader. Our Dancer was fifth, about a 1/2 length behind Blackberry. After 7f, Blackberry still held a length advantage over Our Dancer and was 2 1/2 off the lead. At the finish, Our Dancer was 2 3/4 in front of Blackberry and Blackberry was 5 1/4 behind the winner. So from the 7f mark to the finish, Blackberry lost 2 3/4 lengths to the winner and 3 3/4 lengths to the runner-up. It wasn't like Blackberry ever turned in a blazing internal fraction just to get to contention and then flattened out. Nobody was running fast in the race and Blackberry was never more than four out of it. Those fractions may have had something to do with why the winner won......but nothing to do with why Blackberry lost.

A long-winded explanation designed to ridicule one horse while failing to address the fact the FAVORITE WON getting a ridiculously easy front-running trip that no off the pace runner was going to overcome.

Congratulations! :)

So the fractions helped the winner beat everybody BUT Blackberry Road, who lost on his own?

Antitrust asked the specific question of how did he do? He was asking about Blackberry Road. That's why I answered about that horse. It's true that I do think he's a donkey but I still think it's more than a bit silly trying to write his loss off as a result of the pace when this is a horse that's now 1-14. It's always something.

Comprehension is a beautiful thing.

Well, which is it?

The favorite finished up the last qtr in 23.1 on the dirt after being able to lope along the first 3/4's at 24.3, 24.2, and 25.3. At the quarter pole, Blackberry Road was about 1.5 lengths behind. To catch the favorite, he would have had to run about a 22.4 final quarter. A tough task for any horse, especially for one who just made a four wide move after traveling 3/4's of a mile. I'm not touting Blackberry Road by any means, but I find it hard to believe that the favorite didn't have the race handed to him with those fractions. Anything resembling a pace would have completely changed the dynamics of this race.

I don't think people are really saying anything that different here.
The fact that the favorite/winner was allowed to set such easy fractions was probably the main reason that horse won. I think we probably all agree with Steve on that point.
That doesn't automatically mean that KG's point is completely invalid. He seems to be saying that if Blackberry Road was much of a horse, he would have beaten the second place finisher and probably would have been closer to the winner than he ended up being in reality. It seems to me that is a valid point also.

In other words, I think they're both true.
The winner DID win because he is a pretty good horse that got to lope along on an easy pace.
Blackberry Road DIDN'T finish second or even challenge the winner despite the pace disadvantage because he isn't particularly good.

I "saw" the race, at least as much as you could in that fog. He won VERY easily, as soon as the rail opened it looked like he scooted right through. it was a nice performance. :tro:

That's exactly what I'm saying. Considering the way the race was run, Blackberry Road probably shouldn't have been expected to win. But usually, we will see a runner put together a nice finish and make some progress on a winner that had it all to himself. Instead, we saw him retreating in the lane and even getting passed by a horse that he had already passed around the turn.