Have none of you ever seen a race like this?
A horse who had previously won races running on/near the front end gets a bad break, stumbles, or is squeezed back, drops a couple of lengths back behind the next-last horse and you say "well, he's toast." Yet lo and behold, same horse finds a new dimension, and comes roaring down the stretch to win, or just miss. No one knew he had it in him, least of all the rider and trainer. Doesn't happen every day, or every month, but we have all seen it happen.
So yesterday it happened in the Kentucky Derby. Not going to happen again in our lifetime, most likely. Especially not with a patented Calvin Bo-Rail unimpeded passage on the best part of the track. The races that Mine That Bird won to be named champion 2yo in Canada were won by being forwardly placed, within a few lengths of the leader. Nobody could have logically predicted that he was capable of that kind of finishing kick from the next county. And although his pedigree hinted that he would move up on mud, he hadn't had the opportunity to display it. A sort of perfect storm of circumstances.
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