Quote:
Originally Posted by Travis Stone
You're overstating what I meant. I was speaking in more general terms about horsemen cherry picking spots, avoiding big match-ups, finding soft overnight stakes etc.
Worth noting that most people thought Cat Thief and Volponi were also overmatched and impossible too (not a Brilliant Speed endorsement). And yes, a BC Classic win doesn't seem to boost stallion value as much as one might think going in.
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The best way to eliminate the cherry picking is to eliminate a lot of the stakes. There are just too many stakes races considering the overall number of races has been going down for years yet the number of stakes keeps increasing. The overnight stakes should either be restricted (no good for blacktype) or be handicaps. Everyone cried about handicaps and how they were chasing all the good horses into retirement yet once we elimintated the majority of them the trend is as bad as ever. Of course my usual rant about horses being distributed more evenly would help.
Cat Thief won the Swaps and was 2nd in the Haskell, Fountain of youth, Bluegrass (on dirt), was 3rd in KY Derby, FL Derby and KY Cup Classic (on dirt). He was far, far more qualified than Brilliant Speed who wouldnt be favored in a 3x allowance race on the dirt. Volponi did run 2nd in the Meadowlands Cup which was a grade 2, $400k race prior to the Classic.
Why Brilliant Speed was never tried on synthetics again after his Bluegrass win (over pretty pathetic field) is puzzling considering this pretty hopeless shot at the Classic.