Bourbon Courage
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but going by the official chart, his fractions were roughly 23-, 45 4/5, 57 4/5, 108 3/5.

That means his final 2f was 22 4/5 and his final 1f was 10 4/5. This is basically unheard of on the dirt, regardless of distance. I was already taken away by his stretch burst and awesome gallop out, but these numbers make it even more dazzling. I know the Trakus charts give different numbers but I'm old school and generally trust the charts, especially on a major circuit.

I paid a little more attention to his run because I had money on him, and don't get me started on what I thought the result would be if he had the trip I wanted him to have. Regardless, he clearly is vastly improved sprinting and I'm interested to see how he runs next year (is it too early to talk about potential 2015 BC winners?!)

And I bet out on him across the board. Its in selections, kinda brutal.

The run he made was one of the more exciting performances, even if he came up short!

Totally agree.............but Bobby's Kittens run was pretty electrifying also!

Based on his record sprinting which only was visible in the lifetime PP's I keyed him in all my mutis and couldn't resist emptying the bankroll at that price. Really thought he would follow Work All Week out of there and a least get a striking position. He breaks with the field and then gets dragged back to the rear. Have no idea why he waited so long to make his move and then fans so wide he goes out of the picture. How about coming up the inside and gambling you make your way through. A lot better alternative that going so wide you take yourself out of the race and then close like a madman.

That turn of foot was mindboggling. As there are so few opps racing for big money turf sprinting I bet they try him back at a mile as a one run closer. I know I would.

I had great interest in him also. I'm wondering if 6 is too short for him.

Going forward, he could be a major player up to a mile (one turn mile, that is). Starting to remind me of Caleb's Posse.

This is exactly what I thought would happen.

Here he is just after the start, with the red indicating where I would have liked him to have been.



And here he is a few seconds later, where he could have snuck in behind the eventual winner, assuming he was in the spot pointed to in the first image.



He was wide the entire race so even if he was caught a couple extra paths out I don't think it would have made a difference.

If Bourbon Courage had been where you wanted him, he likely would have finished nowhere near the superfecta.

Nick, do you mind explaining why you think that? I don't see how it would have been much different than the trip Secret Circle got last year.

If he stays that close, there is almost no chance he has that kind of kick at the end. Huge late runs are almost always an illusion.

Karakontie and Anodin each put in nice runs in the Mile.
One right after the other - Anodin bore in a bit late but (here comes the cliché) looked like he was shot out of a cannon.

Of course, but he wouldn't need that kind of kick to win from that position. He had triple digit Beyers in his first two career starts, which were both at 6f, being on the pace or just flanking it, so I don't think my theory is that flawed. He had a last quarter in 23 4/5 and 23 2/5 in those starts as well. I'm not saying he would have come home that quickly off a sub 44 half, but it shows he has the ability to kick even being up close. Even if he was 3 lengths off the lead in the BC, he would have needed a 24 2/5 last quarter to definitely win. I don't think that's unreasonable.

Bourbon Courage ran his final 1/4 in 23.52 and final 1/8 in 11.69s, times which were 1.33 and 1.18 seconds faster than the splits of Work ALl Week. The comparable times for others in the top ten of the Sprint are listed in the blog attached.

http://www.americasbestracing.net/en...up-data-recap/

Another problem with this horse is they wasted a lot of time running him in races he really should not have been in. He could have been a 1 turn beast. Maybe its not to late, we will see.

From a pace figure standpoint, if you put Bourbon Courage next to Baaken, that still would have been the highest pace figure that he'd run since his debut which was 19 races (mostly routes) and 33 months ago. Plus you'd have to use him to get there.

On the DRF Moss scale, Fast Anna went 98-99 for the first two fractions and Baaken, who was 4 lengths off the lead, went 87-92. That's just way faster than Bourbon Courage is used to.

I rarely use Trakus and don't use DRF Moss figures, so I can't speak to that.

Bobby's Kitten and Bourbon Courage were two great examples of horses who had their trainers impose their will on them to get them to go further than they wanted to go, and further than they were bred to go on the bottom of their pedigree.

I wish Bourbon Courage had an extra half furlong to work with, he would have made my Breeders' Cup for me. Bobby's Kitten just saved me from a rough weekend.

Excuse me? You are putting Bobby's Kitten and Bourbon Courage in the same category? Really? This is not your best work.

Let's make some quick comparisons....Bourbon Courage could have run in lucrative Grade 1s and Grade 2s from 6F to one mile, many that featured less than stellar fields. Bobby's Kitten could have run where exactly for what money exactly....a bunch of 5F and 5 1/2 furlong races, with mostly paltry purses, where the winner's share didn't even equal third in the Woodbine Mile, a race where one could easily argue he ran a winning race? Bobby's Kitten did win the $400K Penn Mile. Was that a bad choice and he should have opted for the 6F $300K Jaipur against older?

Don't get mad, I still love you, and think you're brilliant, but this was a horrendous comparison on your part.

I suppose one could make a case that Bobby's Kitten isn't bred for distance underneath, but I'll make one that says he can.

His second dam is a half sister to Paradise Creek and his third dam is a half sister to Theatrical. Both had no issues getting distances.

You're talking strictly about how they were managed. I'm not as big of a 'cut-back angle' guy as you...but both of them fit the 2 things I look for most in that angle. A horse who doesn't want to stretch out, and/or isn't bred to stretch out, but does so for reasons including chasing more lucrative opportunities.


Of course there are few, less attractive, options for turf horses between 6f-to-8f

However, Bobby's Kitten not only started in races like the Blue Grass at 9f and the Belmont Derby at 10f, but he was restrained off of the early pace in both races. If he was ever going to get those distances, he was going to have to get them on a loose lead. Not being strangled off the pace by a jockey.

The horse was entered in spots where you need to enter a 3yo Kitten's Joy colt of his ability...however, Chad Brown certainly imposed his will on that horse, especially in an effort to get him to relax.

His dam was a Forestry sprinter. His full brother also won his only stakes race going 5.5 furlongs on the Turf.

First of all, and this is the most important, you have NO idea whether it was Chad or Ken Ramsey that put him in those spots. Secondly, while Bourbon Courage had alternatives, you have to please tell me where Bobby's Kitten should have run ( The Blue Grass was either $750K or $1 million and the Belmont Derby was $1.25 million, and he was hardly a longshot in either spot, whether you, anyone, or I liked him ) instead of those spots. I would actually argue the only race he didn't run in that he should have was the Fourstardave for $500K instead of the Hall of Fame at 1 1/16 miles. He missed no reasonable spots by running in the Blue Grass or Belmont Derby and made the only race that he HAD to be in, the $400K Penn Mile ( one mile by the way....where he jogged ).

Also, you put him in the same sentence with Bourbon Courage, who passed many lucrative spots he was suited to, for many races he had little to no chance. That comparison is flat out indefensible.

The spots were the right spots...so why does it matter who put him in?

Perhaps Ramsey wanted him wrangled back in races at 9f and 10f? That seems like a stretch.


They were the right spots. I've said that over and over.

The comparisons to Bourbon Courage are obvious, both of them were cut-back angle plays who fit my criteria for that angle.

Regarding the similar cut-back angle to Bobby's Kitten and Bourbon Courage:

It matters based on what you said.

You made indefensible comments in both the initial post I responded to and the one that followed. It's OK to say you misspoke....because you did.

We can move on.