Quote:
Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
A lot of horses at all levels have turned in career best tops with the trip of laying 2nd in a similar spot Uncle Mo was in. Basically - rating off of a pace setter - while clear of the next horse and getting no outside pressure.
If the horse relaxes - and no one comes up from 3rd to force the pace - it's pretty close to being the same thing as being loose on an uncontested lead.
|
True enough.
However, in the very rare occasion, you can have a Secretariat like Belmont or Akinemod like La Brea (in which she was galloping between two sprinters who were all out) in which it seems like the other horses are irrelevant.
But yeah, in the vast majority of the time, that assessment of yours is right.