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Originally Posted by ArlJim78
He runs his best against weaker fields when he can comfortably assume the lead on the turn. Whenever he has real quality sprinters on his inside that make him fight for the lead he folds up or as you say, he doesn't fire. I've not heard about these supposed physical problems and I don't buy it. If he is obviously hurting and has physical problems why are they racing him against hard knockers like the field today? In todays DRF the quote from Gilchrist is "But the way he won the Aristides I'd say he's just as good now as he was when he came here last year". Sounds confident to me.
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Trainers don't make up stories about their horses having problems. It's just the opposite. They will usually claim that their horse is sound even if the horse is very unsound. In this case, Gilchrist admitted flat out that the horse has got alot of physical problems this year. You obviously have not read the interviews with Gilchrist. I'm sure you didn't know that they were thinking about retiring him if he didn't win the race in Kentucky. The quote that you read was positive, but you need to listen to everything they say. I would expect him to say positive things about his horse. These trainers will very rarely say anything negative about their horses. You have to listen carefully for any clue they may give you. In this case, it wasn't so subtle. Gilchrist flat out said that the horse a lot of problmes this year and that they were thinking about retiring him.
Even before I read the interview, I knew the horse was not right this year because I saw him galloping sore in the morning. I couldn't believe that he ran so well in Kentucky. I guess Gilchrist managed to get one last good race out of him.
You asked why they would run the horse in a tough race if he has problems. Trainers do it all the time. You never know for sure how a hurt horse will run, until you try it. You should have seen the ankle on Bandidni before the Ky Derby. He had a huge ankle on him, but Plethcer took a shot and ran him any way. In that case, it didn't work. Baffert ran Forrest Camp with a huge ankle in the Del Mar Furturity. One of my trainers could not believe that the horse was running on that ankle. He ended up winning the race easily but that was the last race of his career.
Anyway, LITF had nothing today. He didn't even show any speed. You know there's something wrong when he doesn't even show any speed. He even showed speed in the BC Sprint.