[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

You seem to mistake stupidity for courage.

I wonder how brave you would be if you had a top horse. Seems to me you are very brave with other people's animals ( i.e. they should have run Lava Man in the Arlington Million instead of the P Classic ).

Isn't everyone more ambitious when it comes to other people's things than their own. I'd like to think I'd be more sporting and take crazy chances though. This is supposed to be a sport still and it's supposed to be fun. I would like to think that I'd have a lot of fun and wouldn't leave the game wondering "What if?" Look at Lava Man. He just won the Pacific Classic. After having won the Santa Anita Hcp and the Hollywood Gold Cup twice, he was already a clearly established best handicap horse in California. What did his Pacific Classic win prove that we didn't already know about him? What is it going to do for his legacy when it's all said and done? Did it make people think any higher of him or was it just "ho-hum, that's what he was SUPPOSED to do against those horses"? Now think about what a win or even a real good effort in the Arlington Million would have done for him. Had he won that race (and remember, this was before Bernardini's Travers), he would have put himself clearly in the leading position for horse of the year, he would have maybe even put himself into a position to be top grass horse, he would have shut up critics that say he has to prove himself outside of California, and he would have put his name in the history books as one of the top horses of the past 10-20 years. How many others out there have a SA Hcp, Hollywood Gold Cup, and Arlington Million win on the resume? On the flip side, say it didn't pan out and he flopped. They could always come back and run in the Goodwood and prep for the Classic, which they are doing anyway. I don't see how trying the Million would have had any negatives.