Trainer Quotes from Monday's action

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by pgardn

He had the outside post. Should he have scratched? I watched that race a few times, I would like to know how Hard Spun was supposed to get to the rail before the stretch run in which he was very tired. From my view it would have been very difficult.

Believe me, the pace was so slow in that race, that Hard Spun certainly could have cleared.

To really get an idea of how slow the fractions were, go take a look at Uptothesky's form in race 3. He's basically a slowpoke, coming off of a 7th place finish in a 7.5K N2L life race last out--and a 8th beaten 23 lengths in a 5K N2L life two starts back.

Also, in four of his last five starts, he rated in 4th early on while going a route of ground.

He won wire-to-wire setting faster fractions than the Southwest winner.

Hard Spun had won all four of his prior races in wire-to-wire fashion, and absolutely had the natural speed to get a much better position early on.