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Originally Posted by DaHoss9698
And the world beaters that Student Council was facing? Let's agree to disagree. You like it, I don't. I suppose we could keep going back and forth, but it's kind of redundant, no?
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Who has Student Council raced against?
Watch the replay of his last race at Churchill. He runs two wide around both turns and battles with Brass Hat gamely to the wire losing by a head in TRACK RECORD time for 1 1/16 miles at 1:41.2. The rest of the field was distanced. That record had stood at Churchill for 37 years! Brass Hat despite many leg issues is a Gr1 winner and was second in the Dubai World Cup. This was on a fast dirt track of course.
Time before that Student Council catches a sloppy track at Churchill Downs in the Alysheba Stakes. Wanderin Boy one of the top route speed horses in the country gets an inside post and is therefore nearly impossible to beat. Student Council races three wide on both turns and chases in vain as Wanderin Boy hugs the rail all the way and steals it. SC finishes third 5 back. Half Ours was second. Wanderin Boy merely comes back in the Whitney to push Lawyer Ron to break a 33 year old track record at Saratoga!
Student Council’s recent running lines connect him to top winning efforts and track records in Kentucky, Florida, Ny, and Dubai. The polytrack did not move him up, it merely confirmed his recent sharpness. There was simply no horse in the Pacific Classic that had been connected recently to that type of class and speed.
On the other hand Lava Man’s running lines show him struggling to beat the likes of AP Xcellent, who is another horse who fades late and whose last victory was a second level allowance. His only graded stakes placing was when he held on for third in the grade 2 Californian against Buzzards Bay and Sun Boat. Big Booster also gave him a scare in the GR1 Hollywood Gold Cup and Big Booster is nothing more than a high end claimer/allowance horse.
I think many people just missed these details and Student Councils steady improvement.
Honestly speaking its Lava Man who is not in Student Councils area code at the moment.
For me this is not about the wagering or liking the surface, it’s a matter of trying to be objective. I prefer that to simply making flip statements like the surface is a joke and the race was an eyesore.