Quote:
Originally Posted by ateamstupid
For 10 furlongs, that's very fast, and the 1-2-3-4 runners finished 8-12-10-11. It was a meltdown.
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It was a solid pace. But you can't blame the poor performance of most of those horses on the pace. First Dude was on the lead. He was going faster than anyone yet he beat Quality Road by 18 lengths. And he beat Haynesfield by 12 lengths.
I personally think :47 is too fast for First Dude. I think he is a better horse from off the pace. He ended up getting beat today by 10 lengths. If he drops 5 lengths back like he probably should have, I'm sure he would have finished a few lengths closer.
What would par be for pace in this race? As I said, I think the track was quite a bit slower for the Classic because the track has been slowing down later in the day at Churchill this year. So :47 is a very solid pace. But in a race like this with the best horses in the country, I would expect a solid pace.