While not one of our contest races, the Shared Belief from Del Mar also was a head scratcher. After the defections of Uncle Chuck [Travers] and Anneau d'Or [Ellis Park], they were left with a field of 4. Honor A.P. was an overwhealming favorite. Baffert's Thousand Words led all the way and qualified for the KY Derby, but didn't impress me very much. Honor A.P. ran a puzzling race - he had moved up to second place, but seemed to be struggling on the final turn and finally kicked in much too late to finish second.
From what I saw of Honor A.P. today, I'd have trouble including him on my Derby short list. Mike Smith thought that he needed more distance, but I'm not sure that was the only issue. It's worth your watching a tape of the race if you're in the HAP camp. Perhaps you'll see something that I didn't.
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