All the infighting aside, Haskin's "profiling", etc., it strikes me it is MUCH, MUCH harder to win the TC than in days past due to:
1. Changes in the breed
2. Changes in preferred training methods (largely a function of 1)
3. Changes in trainer tactics as to which races to participate in (largely a function of 2)
4. Field sizes
The Derby winner is being asked to do things that no other quality horse is ever asked to do today. Meanwhile, everybody else picks their spots and can adhere to a far more normal regimen, even though they are asked to go what is now a freakish distance in the Belmont.
Any horse that ever gets across those 3 wires first in only 5 weeks has done an unbelievably difficult thing in our present time--which, until equine-accommodating time machines are built, is the only time in which they can race. What is the most sensible bet is not something that can be determined until there is a live tote board. But I assume every racing fan is rooting for this horse.
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