Blackberry Road in FG 8th Thursday

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by miraja2

I don't think people are really saying anything that different here.
The fact that the favorite/winner was allowed to set such easy fractions was probably the main reason that horse won. I think we probably all agree with Steve on that point.
That doesn't automatically mean that KG's point is completely invalid. He seems to be saying that if Blackberry Road was much of a horse, he would have beaten the second place finisher and probably would have been closer to the winner than he ended up being in reality. It seems to me that is a valid point also.

In other words, I think they're both true.
The winner DID win because he is a pretty good horse that got to lope along on an easy pace.
Blackberry Road DIDN'T finish second or even challenge the winner despite the pace disadvantage because he isn't particularly good.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Considering the way the race was run, Blackberry Road probably shouldn't have been expected to win. But usually, we will see a runner put together a nice finish and make some progress on a winner that had it all to himself. Instead, we saw him retreating in the lane and even getting passed by a horse that he had already passed around the turn.