There is ZERO evidence that the rail was " not the place to be " on Derby Day....and I mean ZERO. Because a trainer made the mistake of using it as an excuse for a horse, Sweetnorthernsaint, who had actual excuses does not make it so. The simple fact is that plenty of horses ran just fine, no worse than could have been expected and in some cases possibly better, while running on the rail. With that being the case, and I have gone back and watched the replays of all the dirt races more than once, there is NO chance there was anything wrong with the rail that day. The simple fact is that because a horse, even a few horses, don't perform up to expectations while being on the rail ( and I'm not convinced there are examples of this on Derby Day ), the rail is NOT necessarily dead. As, if even a couple of horses perform up to expectations while racing on the rail then there is no chance it is ( or was ) dead. If the rail is dead, or even " not the place to be ", NOBODY will run up to expectations. It will not hamper some but not all....it will affect every single horse that races on it.
The simple fact is that racetracks can often give the illusion of having an off rail because most races are run in an outside flow manner. The funny thing about Derby Day was the number of horses that actually made effective moves inside of horses and towards the inside.
The track, at Churchill Downs on May 6th, was even.
|