Nice win by Flashy Bull

[SentToStud]

I should have said a worse "sign" for the sport I guess.

Like most, I'm not thrilled with what is passing for Grade 1 winners. Diamond Stripes is nice and all that but to see a horse as 2nd favorite in a G 1 race who never ran in a stakes vs older horses is, I think, a worse sign. That's just my opinion.

I'm just a very old man who yearns for the old days when the summer handicap races meant something and the fall weight-for-age races determined the champs.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by SentToStud

I should have said a worse "sign" for the sport I guess.

Like most, I'm not thrilled with what is passing for Grade 1 winners. Diamond Stripes is nice and all that but to see a horse as 2nd favorite in a G 1 race who never ran in a stakes vs older horses is, I think, a worse sign. That's just my opinion.

I think I see what you're getting at but I don't quite think this part is relevant. Plenty of horses have been favored or second choices in their initial foray against older horses. Diamond Stripes won his second race, a NW1X, late at Saratoga last summer. I'm not exactly sure which races versus olders he missed while racing and ready.

[SentToStud]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

I think I see what you're getting at but I don't quite think this part is relevant. Plenty of horses have been favored or second choices in their initial foray against older horses. Diamond Stripes won his second race, a NW1X, late at Saratoga last summer. I'm not exactly sure which races versus olders he missed while racing and ready.

That's exactly my point. In modern times racing, he missed nothing. The Foster was, I think, the third 9F+ G1 of the year following the Donn and SAH. Pre-Breeders Cup, you would never have seen a horse with his resume prep for a race like this with a single race against n3x competition and come in it arguably worthy of being second choice.

[ArlJim78]

In these times the gap between a sharp improving N3x horse and a competitive GR1 horse is not so large. The ranks are thin at the top.

[SentToStud]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

In these times the gap between a sharp improving N3x horse and a competitive GR1 horse is not so large. The ranks are thin at the top.

True. Alas, I lament.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

In these times the gap between a sharp improving N3x horse and a competitive GR1 horse is not so large. The ranks are thin at the top.

Ain't that the truth.
You don't need to look any further than the aforementioned Flashy Bull so see it.
On April 18th he won an OC 50k/N2X at Aqu, and less than two months later he won the G1 Stephen Foster. That is strange enough, but what really makes it strange is that he really didn't improve at all over those two months. He ran basically the same race on Saturday that he did in that race in April. In that one his effort was good enough to beat allowance horses by four lengths. Saturday it was good enough to win a G1.

[Bobby Fischer]

that horse got so pumped up over the layoff that they just needed to balance getting into racing shape with maintaining his physical improvements. It's nice to see a 3yo with some base talent be allowed to improve. His was very noticable, although I didn't pay attention until the Preakness day post-parade. He got the right track and opponent to continue to move forward even at nine furlongs that day, but looked like a top animal physically.

At least Flashy Bull made the Foster somewhat decent in terms of adjusted final time. Gomez appeared to have at least been able to make a winning bid and appeared to ride conservatively in spite of having a ton of horse with Magna Graduate. Magna Graduate is no Grade 1 champion, but maybe Gomez let Flashy Bull dominate the top of the stretch.

"When I came off the turn, I thought I had dead aim on (Flashy Bull)," Garrett Gomez said of his view aboard Magna Graduate. "But then (Flashy Bull) kind of kicked on a little more on the inside. My horse had to grind it out. We kind of took him out of his element today, a little further off the pace than usual, to get him to settle."

I guess it is a lot safer to sit back and expect everyone to quit for you going into the turn. Albarado was losing some momentum at the end, but he did a solid job of staying out of that expected speed duel between umphry and wanderin boy without riding passively.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Bobby Fischer

At least Flashy Bull made the Foster somewhat decent in terms of adjusted final time.

What does this mean?

It was a blanket three horse finish....the second and third horses ran very similar final times.