Barclay Tagg's comments on NoBiz

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Possibility? Sure. Likely? Nah. We're talking about a horse that has barely developed a step figure-wise throughout his career, and that's exactly what made him somewhat of a bust on the Triple Crown trail. I find it hard to believe that he'd develop more in three months of racing (last on dirt in July, getting smacked by Any Given Saturday) than he did through his first 10.

When you have a valuable and talented, if unspectacular, dirt horse who may turn out to be a super turf runner, "we could possibly be the fifth fastest horse in this race" doesn't seem to me like enough justification for a Classic try.

That Nobiz wasn't developing, figure-wise, from his 2yo to his 3yo season was disturbing to me. It made me think that he wasn't going to improve at all and had reached his top level early. But I don't know if it's fair to say that he's not improving anymore based on his recent figures. Turf figures are basically useless. Granted, his last dirt figure in the Dwyer, didn't seem to indicate that he had turned any kind of corner but his last couple make me wonder. Especially this past weekend. He looked like a much better horse than I've ever seen him look. It wasn't the time or the figure but the way he ran. I don't think it would even take much improvement from where he was in the spring to put him right in the picture here and if one or more of the top ones doesn't bring his "A game", who knows? And let's be honest. Nobody is saying that Street Sense and Hard Spun don't belong and their numbers this summer don't suggest they blow Nobiz away. In fact, because SS ran a 108 in the BC Juvenile and a 111 in the Preakness before his last couple, it could also be argued that he hasn't developed either. Only in his case, he was already a little higher than Nobiz. I just don't see any reason why SS can be considered a prime contender while running a 108 in the Travers and Nobiz shouldn't even be considered.

If this was a situation where they were making a decision between the Classic and one of the other BC races, even though I think the Classic attempt would be worth taking, I could understand going in another race. But I'm not sure why running in the Classic, even if he finished dead last, would stop him from maybe becoming, as u put it, a super turf runner.