[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Kasept

I guess the :49 half and 1:14.3 three-quarters that the winning favorite got away with had nothing to do with the outcome of the race...

It may have but around the far turn, Blackberry had made a huge move and had every chance to go on and win if he was good enough. He wasn't. I'm not into making excuses for horses that are now 1-14. Obviously, with a horse like this, he didn't lose the race because of the fractions. He lost because he doesn't like to win. To use the pace as any sort of excuse for him is, I think, looking for an excuse where there is none. Especially when you look at the horse that finished second in the race. After a 1/2 mile, Our Dancer was in third, about 1 1/2 lengths behind the leader. Blackberry was another 1 1/2 lengths back in fifth. After 6f, Blackberry had gone past Our Dancer. Blackberry was third, 1 1/2 back of the leader. Our Dancer was fifth, about a 1/2 length behind Blackberry. After 7f, Blackberry still held a length advantage over Our Dancer and was 2 1/2 off the lead. At the finish, Our Dancer was 2 3/4 in front of Blackberry and Blackberry was 5 1/4 behind the winner. So from the 7f mark to the finish, Blackberry lost 2 3/4 lengths to the winner and 3 3/4 lengths to the runner-up. It wasn't like Blackberry ever turned in a blazing internal fraction just to get to contention and then flattened out. Nobody was running fast in the race and Blackberry was never more than four out of it. Those fractions may have had something to do with why the winner won......but nothing to do with why Blackberry lost.