Nice tactics by Indian Blessing's camp

[Danzig]

i do know from years of watching, that teaching a horse to rate is far from an easy task. perhaps they should just understand that this horse has distance limitations due to her running style, and point her accordingly. and after today, maybe they will.

[jcs11204]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i do know from years of watching, that teaching a horse to rate is far from an easy task. perhaps they should just understand that this horse has distance limitations due to her running style, and point her accordingly. and after today, maybe they will.

now i totally agree with that...
i think her limit is obviously 1 1/16, if gomez let her go today i am sure she wins for fun.

[ArlJim78]

If gomez opened her up and let her set sail IB would have lost by an even larger margin. He used the tactics everyone seems to like last time and only held on by a diminishing length to Proud Spell who was coming of the bench.
IB does not seem to be able to run routes with a very even speed distribution.
Proud Spell is the better horse period.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

Proud Spell is the better horse period.

That's a cowardly way to put it because of how the schedule looks from here out.

The question is not who the better horse is - even though Indian Blessing still owns a 2-to-1 head-to-head record over Proud Spell at the distance - obviously PS is the horse you want going forward.

However, Indian Blessing doesn't lose a match race scenerio to her if ridden correctly.

[jcs11204]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

That's a cowardly way to put it because of how the schedule looks from here out.

The question is not who the better horse is - even though Indian Blessing still owns a 2-to-1 head-to-head record over Proud Spell at the distance - obviously PS is the horse you want going forward.

However, Indian Blessing doesn't lose a match race scenerio to her if ridden correctly.

totally agree, match race between these 2 take gomez off, hell i would love to see cc lopez on her.... proud spell never gets close.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by jcs11204

totally agree,.

OK, I must be missing something.

Time for me to rethink my position.

[jcs11204]

dont re think anything you are correct and so am i.

gomez strangles to many horses, hard spun in the belmont is classic example... look what he went on to do after the belmont... being by danzig if gomez sends him i dont think curlin or the filly rags to riches would have cought him.

[sumitas]

I recall Beautiful Pleasure. Chavez aboard would let her open up like a rank 2 year old. The Go For Wand ( I think that race only had 4 runners), BP must have had a 30 length lead only to be collared by Heritage of Gold.

[jcs11204]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

If gomez opened her up and let her set sail IB would have lost by an even larger margin. He used the tactics everyone seems to like last time and only held on by a diminishing length to Proud Spell who was coming of the bench.
IB does not seem to be able to run routes with a very even speed distribution.
Proud Spell is the better horse period.

why are ppl not going crazy over this ignorant comment ??? the way they do when other ppl post something ignorant ?


proud spell will never accomplish what indian blessing already has in her career.
she is a breeders cup winner and a champion. i love proud spell but i doubt she will ever have the credentials that indian blessing has

[outofthebox]

I was not happy to see her expose herself today. I was hoping she would be undefeated going into the Oaks and would play against her there. Gomez was quite happy with his ride, and infact thought she ran better today than in the Silverbullet Day.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i do know from years of watching, that teaching a horse to rate is far from an easy task. perhaps they should just understand that this horse has distance limitations due to her running style, and point her accordingly. and after today, maybe they will.

We agree here. Whether she can run 10f or even 9f is not the point. Today's race was 8.5f, a distance she's won at several times and at a track she's won on so the long stretch wasn't what got her beat today. It was the worst ride since McCarron tried the same tactics on King Glorious and Avenging Force beat him. Cannon says he's not convinced she's not better than the other filly and that may be true. But she had just beaten the other filly at that track and distance last time. It's my belief that you've got to prepare to win today's race before you start worrying about races two months down the line. Gomez rode the race perfectly.......for Proud Spell's rider. He put absolutely no pressure on him to make any kind of decisions. We all know that Indian Blessing is not going to outrun me down the lane of a race so her only chance is to use her speed advantage to open up as big an advantage as possible and hope they run out of run trying to catch her. She's not going to beat them if they are only two lengths back turning for home and they've gone that slow. She's just not. If Gomez allows her to run her natural race, then he's going to force Proud Spell's rider to make a decision. Does he go after her earlier and maybe take some of his own filly's stretch punch away? Or does he let IB waltz away and risk not catching her? He never had to make a choice because Gomez made it for him. Fat Man says that Baffert knew he was cooked no matter what so he tried different tactics. With all due respect, I think that's crazy. Why would he think he was cooked and need to try different tactics when the old tactics have led her to wins each time? I will agree with Cannon that IF they are looking further down the road, here was the perfect chance to see how she would respond to the different tactics. Obviously, they didn't work. I wouldn't be at all surprised though to see them go back to what they know works and have her still be a major factor in the Kentucky Oaks. I mentioned King Glorious earlier. This is very reminiscent of that situation. You have a horse that's seems like he is a runoff and can't be rated so you try it to see what happens and it costs you but you learn from it and come back next time and let the horse do what they do best. KG came back to win the Ohio Derby and the Haskell easily. I could take this loss better if she had lost while running her race. She didn't.