1/29 (GP): Pegusus Day

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

But should it be held against a horse that he has more speed than most of the horses he faces and they aren’t able to be pace rivals with him?

What do you mean, "held against" him? I certainly wouldn't bet money on Knicks Go in a race where I was confident he wasn't going to make a clear lead. If I recall correctly, the horse has been in about 10 races where he was not on the lead at the first point of call and he has lost all of them and only hit the board in 2 (and was beaten open lengths even in those).

And let's not kid ourselves, it's not like he has some sort of otherworldly speed; the horses with comparable speed and quality don't show up, or they are ridden conservatively to secure at least a placing rather than a meltdown. It is highly likely that Life is Good will be ridden in just such a way considering his post, his trainer's Twitter comments about getting him to "settle", the uncertainty of his stamina, and the damage to his stallion career that will be done by an unplaced effort as compared to a second place finish.

My guess is Life is Good will be hard held in second early and hope for one of two things (or both): 1) Knicks Go is a tired horse ala California Chrome or Accelerate, or 2) the turn move he displayed in the King's Bishop will be enough to break Knicks Go's heart and hold sway in the stretch.

At any rate, we won't be seeing anything special today (how could we in a 9 furlong race anyways?). Best case scenarios: Knicks Go is going to be left alone and do his normal thing or Life is Good is going to work hard to put him away and might have just enough left to hold off an allowance horse.