Quote:
Originally Posted by Plenilune
Do you agree with the final decision? The head-on didn't look very good, with Smith herding Bolt out two paths. Who knows, if Bolt is so great, would that really impede his progress?
I'm just wondering if it's going to be a long shot at the end of the KY Derby road.
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I was surprised that the stewards appeared to ignore the bumping that occurred at the top of the stretch. Castellano had the entire track to work with, but chose to cut the corner closely and appeared to me to initiate contact with McK in the process. Had Bolt gone on to win, I would have thought that this contact would have been grounds for a DQ.
I would have let the outcome stand, treating the two separate infractions as offsetting penalties and give both jockeys fines or days for their infractions.
I'm looking to a rematch of these two horses, but may not see it until Churchill since Baffert might take McK the Oaklawn route for his final prep.
As to your second comment, we will certainly have a number of horses in the starting gate that qualified as longshots, and it is tough to find standouts. The San Felipe stretch drive was visually impressive, but they ran the mile in 1:36.18, while Justify ran his mile today under a hammerlock in 1:35.73. Of course, Justify has to stretch beyond a mile and run against stakes caliber horses and, most important, accrue the necessary qualifying points, all in his next race. That is a tall order for even a very talented horse.