Is this the best we have?

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by pdrift1

and by the way how is your husband doing? and the rest of the family?

he's doing ok, bored to tears. but everything is looking good. 20 one and a quarter inch screws in his heel. he just has to wait for time to go by now. everyone else is doing great. thanks for asking! hope you are all well.

funny tho that someone brought up saint liam--he didn't ship west too well, and had excuses. so why is that ok to excuse an eastern horse failing, but not a western horse when they ship?
someone is bound to step up--question is 'who?'

as an aside, regarding wilko--what is his value now, since he's about 0-18 since the bcj? they talk about a horse winning a big one, so you can't afford to run him at four (street sense for instance) so what about wilko? wonder what his insured value is now...

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Danzig

he's doing ok, bored to tears. but everything is looking good. 20 one and a quarter inch screws in his heel. he just has to wait for time to go by now. everyone else is doing great. thanks for asking! hope you are all well.

funny tho that someone brought up saint liam--he didn't ship west too well, and had excuses. so why is that ok to excuse an eastern horse failing, but not a western horse when they ship?
someone is bound to step up--question is 'who?'

as an aside, regarding wilko--what is his value now, since he's about 0-18 since the bcj? they talk about a horse winning a big one, so you can't afford to run him at four (street sense for instance) so what about wilko? wonder what his insured value is now...

Because that horse shipped to several other states and did just fine except for that one time. I think anyone would agree that Saint Liam was a very good horse and threw up some remarkable races in the Woodward and Whitney, but he wasn't exactly an all-time great who was going to bring that sort of game on every race day.

Personally I'm not about to be blown over by a horse who probably is the best we have running right now but would probably get his butt handed to him by a horse like Flashy Bull in the biggest race of the year if Lava even showed up.

[Danzig]

not asking anyone to be bowled over, just don't hold him to a higher standard than any other horses.
i just find it amazing that he wins, and gets knocked--where's the criticisms for corinthian?? hell, he stayed east and finished last!

lava man has lost once in cali in two years, it's an amazing stretch. an admitted stall racer, they probably shouldn't have shipped him the times that he did, it obviously puts him out of his game. kudos to them for trying imo. at least they tried.
i just think it's a shame that a horse who has accomplished so much can't get a break from fans. again, give him his due for what he's done, not what he hasn't.
he's now a graded winner on three surfaces. only the second ever three-peater in the history of the gold cup.

[Jax Cajun]

I disagree that this year is a downer. Corinthian was overdue to bounce and he will be back stronger. Flashy Bull has been looking good as well. Don't forget about Sun King...okay well maybe that's a stretch.

[boswd]

I think every is jumping the gun a bit. It's a little too early to call this years crop a throw out just because Invasor has been retired and Lava Man is just being Lava Man on the west coast.

It's way too early for this kind of talk. We still have a few races at Monmouth, The Whitney, the Woodward a couple more at Belmont including the Jockey Club Gold cup the Pac Classic.

Who's to say that Flashy Bull or Politcal Force might be something by BCC time? And what? Corinthian isn't allowed to throw in a clunker? Now what if any of the above named go on to capture the Whitney woodward and the JCCG? Would you still think there isn't a superstar in the division? The older division stakes races is just now heating up. Way to early to throw in the towel.

[boswd]

I mean come on Politcal Force ran the 1 1/4 race in 2:00.5 That actually quite impressive. Much much better than the more highly regarded Lava Man's performance of 2:03 for the same distance.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by boswd

I mean come on Politcal Force ran the 1 1/4 race in 2:00.5 That actually quite impressive. Much much better than the more highly regarded Lava Man's performance of 2:03 for the same distance.

they got the same Beyer figure....

for what its worth neither effort was very good

Political Force capitalized on a race that fell apart and Lave Man was tracking an inferior horse on a slow pace which eliminated most of the field.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by boswd

I mean come on Politcal Force ran the 1 1/4 race in 2:00.5 That actually quite impressive. Much much better than the more highly regarded Lava Man's performance of 2:03 for the same distance.

If you think Political Force's win was anything close to impressive then you must I have seen a different running of the Suburban than I did. I saw a horse get an absolutely perfect trip and spend the final eighth of a mile looking for a place to lay down. He wasn't wandering all over the stretch because he was " finding more." Fairbanks, who was basically finished at the top of the stretch, was actually giving the illusion that he was coming back at Political Force.

Bottom line.....the older horse handicap division doesn't even exist. It's a bunch of modified allowance horses masquarading as quality. They may fool some people but they aren't fooling me.