Asmussen: No Rachel for Blossom

[CSC]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

I would equate the lack of high cruising speed with her being about 85% fit. That and Borel had a big hold on her, so who knows what her speed would have been like if she was let to run. I do think that was a big mistake by Assman and crew.. telling Borel to only get into her at the 1/16th pole. I guess they assumed they were running against a bunch of pigs who couldnt break a 89 beyer.. they were wrong.

I'm not a trainer by any means, but I would think if you are really holding a horse back and not giving her her head, and she's only 85% fit to begin with, wouldnt it wear out the horse a lot more to fight with her the whole run?

I watched the replay only as an afterthought after Borel's comments where he said he may have been misquoted, from my view she wasn't held as much as was believed when reading and hearing all the things regarding figure 8's and riding to Asmussen's instructions. To me she didn't have the same explosiveness as to some of her races last year. It's something to watch for, though off 1 prep race I can agree it is hardly conclusive.