I really loved Ravel's last race right up until last week....
Basically, the Sham Stakes is run at 9 furlongs, in the first week of Feb. It's run at a time when the vast majority of good 3-year-olds aren't precieved to be ready to tackle that distance.
Which is why the Sham Stakes almost always features a VERY slow pace, where the best horses are often off-the-pace types who simply can't get the setup they need.
Because of the nature of this race, over the last four years, horses who were painfully obvious the best, have lost to vastly inferior horses who won it from up front. This includes such Sham upsets as Man Among Men beating eventual Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker. Master David beating eventual Pacific Classic and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Borrego. And Going Wild beating eventual Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo.
This year's Sham Stakes featured the same old story...it was a pathetically slow paced race. The two pacesetters, Liquidity and Song of Navarone could only manage 2nd and 3rd though.
Ravel, racing in 4th, but never more than 2 lengths off the snails pace, hooked by the two horses who had it all there own way, and grinded out the win.
The final time of 1:48 4/5ths is what really made the performance exciting. By comparision, it was only 1/5th slower than it took older males to get 9 furlongs in the Grade 2 Strub on the same card. Although, the Strub did go about 11 lengths faster to the six furlong call, and was a legit run race.
Now, we are all obviously excited that Ravel only went 1/5th slower than the Strub....however, it's now starting to look more and more like the Strub was just a tremendously bad race.
* The winner and 3rd place finisher of the race (Arson Squad and Brother Derek) have had physical problems since this race.
* The 2nd place finisher Spring at Last, who was on that much faster pace in the Strub, totally wasted a perfect trip, and ran just dreadfully in the Big Cap. 5th place finisher Awesome Gem came back to run last at every call, and finish last, in the Big Cap.
In conclusion, because the Strub is starting to look like such an abysmal race, it really takes away Ravel's most significant accolade for his Sham Stakes win.
Now, we are left to ponder how impressive it was that this horse came from less than two lengths off a slow pace, to grind down the highly uninspiring pair of Liquity and Song of Navarone.
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