"Luzzi told McLaughlin that the Florida heat might have been Daaher's undoing.
"It's obvious something went wrong," McLaughlin said. "The [jockey] said it felt like he overheated. ... These things can happen. Right now he's walking OK."
I think that to some extent, since it seems right now at least that Daaher is physically okay, this makes KG's point about not putting "a line through the race" a valid one, although perhaps not for the reasons KG stated. It makes it worth figuring out - for fututre betting purposes - why the horse ran like that.
Was it the heat, as Luzzi stated?
Was it the layoff?
Is he the sort of horse that can handle added distance with a nice foundation, but can't first off a break?
Does he just not like the Gulfstream strip?
Is he a NY only horse? (Look at his record/figs in and out of New York)
I don't know the answer to these questions, but in light of that uncharacteristic performance, asking them seems valid. Simply putting a line through the race and saying "something went wrong" (or using it as evidence that he simply can't handle two-turns), doesn't seem productive to me. It makes sense to take an educated guess as to what that "something" might be.
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