CONTEST: The 'Top 5' Thread -- Trifecta Box

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

Now I'm myopic?

Better that than clueless.

Ok, let me spell this out to you Nick.

As you incessantly like to remind us, this field is atrocious.

Even more atrocious, according to you, than the field Big Brown wasn't challenged by.

Like Big Brown, Uncle Mo has shown ability far beyond anyone else in the field.

Like Big Brown, Mo is lightly raced, especially this year.

I'm pretty sure I recall some talk about soundness with Big Brown, pre Derby. Just like with Uncle Mo.

Like Big Brown, there is talk about Uncle Mo's distance challenged pedigree.

The only real difference between them is that Big Brown won an atrocious Fla Derby in his last prep, while Uncle Mo ran a crappy third in the Wood. To me, this is almost a complete non factor for the myopic reasons I've posted previously.
But yeah, there are no similarities at all.

This is a VERY casual approach to their respective final preps. The field for the Florida Derby in 2008 was hardly accomplished but it was stronger than this year's Wood field. That, coupled with the fact that Big Brown ran a huge race that day to win from the 12 hole, set a very solid pace and keep on going, leads to the conclusion that the only similarity between Big Brown's Fla Derby and Uncle Mo's Wood is that they were both run at 1 1/8 miles.

I have never wavered from the opinion that the 2010 Uncle Mo will rip this field to shreds. However, we differ opinion-wise because I think the 2010 Uncle Mo is a thing of the past. You have few viable excuses for his Wood defeat other than "he didn't look comfortable" and apparently still believe his Timely Writer win was impressive despite walking through the opening half-mile and beating two horses who were pummeled in graded stakes in their next start.

Really, Uncle Mo at this point and Big Brown 3 years ago couldn't have been more different. One was just developing into something special while the other is trying to find what made him special. I honestly hope we see the same Uncle Mo on Saturday that we did in November at CD. If it means I don't cash any tickets I'll be happy because racing will have a star to follow and a big-mouth owner to grab headlines.