Million Day Play Along

[pointman]

Originally Posted by ScottJ

The same on-going scenario in these four ad five horse fields. The pace is slow, the lead is given to a gross longshot on paper, and the race turns into a quarterhorse sprint. When you think about if, Duff One (#1, J.Ortiz) came within 3/4s of a length on that tremendous upset.

More interesting is that the pace and layout of that race put to the two Belmont Oaks players off the exacta.

Minorette did not seem to have the same pop so no fault to Lezcano there, but Chad Brown's other charge, Xcellence, is a head scratcher - a room full of top jockeys available, Bravo gets the chance, and gets pocketed and blocked in a four horse field. Exactly how does that happen? You can be sure that Jersey Joe does not see the back of this horse next time out.

As Maggie Wolfendale tweeted, how in hell can you get the kind of trip the 4 got in a 4 horse field? I can't imagine that Brown wanted both of his horses taken back there, it is like saying we are going to concede the race to the 5. The ride by Bravo there was awful and I agree there is zero chance he is getting back on that horse who is who I want out of this race.

I am just dumbfounded as to the strategy that went into the riding of that race in what is supposed to be the top colony in the country. Doug Salvatore was spot on when he said he would rather see Lezcano on the 4 than the 6, would have been a different result there.