One of the greatest 11.25 length defeats by a filly in history

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Let's just pretend that this race was a match-race between Rachel and Life and Ten. Rachel would have obviously been the favorite. But what would the over/under have been in terms of margin of victory by Rachel? It would have been somewhere around 4 lengths or maybe 5 lengths at the absolute most. Life and ten ended up getting beat by Rachel by 10 lengths. So how can you act like Life at Ten ran well? How can you like act like she outperformed expectations? She totally underperformed.

I judge performances in relation to the running line on the form in which they produce. That involves watching trips, understanding pace, and understanding every horse involved in the race.

I'm not impressed at all when a horse loafs on an uncontested lead - and wins some 750K 10 furlong Grade 2 stakes race for their 6th win a row.

I am impressed when the same horse gets hooked up in a duel with a better horse - is being herded and pushed out through the first turn - and stops to run a Beyer in the 70's and loses dismally to a Persistenly. Those are the kind of performances that I'm a fan of.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

A tale of two trips with Life At Ten and Persistently ...

From finishing 11.25 lengths behind her last time to finishing 8.75 lengths in front of her today. You have a 19 length reversal.

That's basically the joy of dirt racing .. the supposedly fluky nature of it. The fact that one extremely poor tactical decision can cost a horse a city block of ground versus a benefiting rival.

As opposed to synthetic races .. where it basically mostly just boils down to whoever can finish and early speed is often almost worthless on most versions the surface.