[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Cherokee Run was the post time favorite in the BC Sprint despite having lost six of his last seven - which can sometimes be telling about how the form of his opposition might have looked coming into the race.

Gulch was obviously losing in tough spots and running well...but if you want to knock Artax for losing - it's hard not to hold CR and Gulch to the same standard.

Gulch still won over a very fluky off track on a day when many Lukas horses were running big. Winning Colors - who was beaten 15 lengths in her prior start - almost upset Personal Ensign. Is It True upset the seemingly invincible Easy Goer. I believe Lukas also swept the Juve Fillies that year - and had a 2nd with Steinlan at 37/1 in the Mile.

There was nothing fluky about it. This was the same Winning Colors that had won the Derby, ran even better in the Preakness and was within less than a length of Personal Ensign in the Maskette. Easy Goer's problem wasn't with Is It True running huge it was with the track, which he proved again in the Derby. Open Mind validated her performance with a 3yo championship the next year and Steinlen was overlooked in the betting because his record wasn't as good as it could have been because they had been racing him longer but he had two sharp mile wins that year and I think he confirmed it wasn't a fluke by winning the race the next year.