Ron The Greek's debut
 

Believe it or not -- Ron The Greek will be the only horse in the Breeders Cup Classic field with 2 Grade 1 wins on dirt this year if he goes.

He won the Santa Anita Handicap earlier in the year -- and he won The Foster, nailing Wise Dan in a race that collapsed late.

Here is Ron The Greek's debut. He broke from post position #1 in a maiden race at Hoosier. It's very visually impressive because he passes the entire field in the stretch. Something rarely seen in debut sprints.

http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?...=D&country=USA


The one good trait a large percentage of our American horses (not including just top class ones) posses is extreme speed and precocity --- Ron The Greek doesn't have either. He's slowly risen to stardom as the faster horses have burned out and flamed out. His most recent performance stunk, however.

Wow...spectacular burst with extremely fortunate timing. I'd not seen that -- thanks for the link!

It was a lot like Artie Schiller's debut win visually...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEqeAOC1fxg


Except it was on dirt and it was at Hoosier Park.

I was disappointed in his last race, but I have considered him my BC Classic pick since the Foster....So maybe I just look at the last race as a gift of better odds.

Anyone else give him a shot?

I'm playing him in the Classic and hope the bettors at least sort of ignore him

I think he has a nice shot to rebound. But like Doug said, his last was horrible and for me its hard to just ignore.

Are his connections being delusional, or are they entering him becuase he's trained well since his last race and they think he's got a legit shot?

I wonder what the owners of Ron The Greek will/would do if they found out that PMay is on their horse, but that The Rock Tard is off?

Holy crap, talk about your dilemmas!

Ooops, I forgot to put the obligatory :)

Delusional, how? He won the Big Cap and Foster. He fits well.

If my math is right, he ran his final 1/8th in about :10 1/5 or :10 2/5. That is unheard of on the dirt. I think that is the fastest final 1/8th of a mile I have ever seen on the dirt. I think the track was probably sealed. It was listed as muddy but it didn't look particularly muddy. It was obviously playing very fast or he couldn't have come home in :10 2/5.

As you and everyone else has noted- his last race was awful.

C'mon now, for all the crazy opinions and awesome cover songs I post on here, I barely ever post my picks. And I did post a pic of my winning Kentucky Derby ticket this year, so the dilemma for you is- can lightning strike twice?

A lot of horses go into the BC off of bad efforts. You know this.

Very cool links to the debuts..........thanks.

According the chart -- he made up 7.5 lengths into the teeth of an 11.40 final furlong.

Using the rule of thumb that 6 lengths equals one second... he ran his final furlong in 10.15 seconds.

Yes, obviously the track was fast. Hoosier is also a place notorious for fast final furlongs. The track might be slightly downhill through the stretch like Oaklawn Park has been proven to be.

Here was Ron The Greek's second career start. Another dramatic rush to win a photo. This one was on the bullring at Delta Downs.

http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?...=D&country=USA

Was he sold after that race? I noticed that Tom Amoss had him for those first couple of races. Then the horse went to Tom Albertrani for a few races before going to Bill Mott.

No.

Jack T. Hammer (sounds like a porn name) owned him with Amoss and Albertrani.

Wachtel Stable and Brous Stable each bought in much later on and he went to Bill Mott.