Afleet Alex

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Scav

not Henny?...Would be an interesting selection..Both have serious upside because they haven't been squeezed dry yet....I actually would take Henny the more I think about it. Sprint division isn't that tough, 3 year old or even the older, where Bern is going to get feed to the wolves in the gold cup, I still think Flower Alley dusts this horse, we will see if he is the same Flower as he was last year, FA loves Toga and Pletcher should have him LOADED for the Whitney

I like Henny but I would always take a distance horse over a sprinter. The big money is in the classic races not the sprints. Henny will be running for $2 million in the BC Sprint but Bernardidni will be running for $5 million in the Classic.

[AeWingnut]

Horses go through form cycles. Most everyone under the sun with a three yr old (stake horse) is pointing that horse to the Kentucy Derby. The Pinnacle of all the races for 3 yr olds. After he has reached the mountain top he may plateau and remain good enough to beat the same kind of horses in the Preakness or Belmont but rarely both. After that he has no where to go but down.

Afleet Alex like many triple crown horses has no insentive to keep racing. Their stock in the breeding shed can only go down if they continue and prove they cannot beat older horses.

However there are always exceptions. Funny Cide is a gelding and continues to be a decent horse but not a grade I horse.

The host of this website Steve has a million stories to tell and I think you will be glad if you stick around and read his stuff.

[miraja2]

Well it does seem like you have a lot to learn, but don't let ANYONE tell you that Afleet Alex was not a monster. If he would have kept running I think he would have beaten up on Flower Alley and St Liam last year. Jeremy Rose had finally learned how to ride the horse (use that amazing one-run ability he had). In the last 4 races of his career Rose rode him that way in the Arkansas, Preakness, and Belmont and he flat out destroyed those fields. Rose gave him a ride in the Derby that was technically okay, but did not fit the horse's running style and it got Alex beat. After that race Rose learned his lesson and if the horse hadn't been injured I believe he would have added victories in the Travers and the BCC to his already impressive accomplishments.

Also just so you know for comparison sake, the Breeders' Cup Classic has a larger purse than all three Triple Crown races COMBINED. It is pretty damn important.

[slotdirt]

You know, I was just thinking about recent 3YO's who won the HOY award:

Point Given
Charismatic
Favorite Trick (2YO!!!!)
AP Indy
SUnday Silence

This is totally a new topic, I realize this, but I find it suspect that horses like Favorite Trick and Charismatic won the HOY award, but Afleet Alex and Smarty Jones - two of the best 3YO's we'll see in a while - finished second to Ghostzapper and Saint Liam, respectively.

Don't have anything else to add besides that to be honest.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

You know, I was just thinking about recent 3YO's who won the HOY award:

Point Given
Charismatic
Favorite Trick (2YO!!!!)
AP Indy
SUnday Silence

This is totally a new topic, I realize this, but I find it suspect that horses like Favorite Trick and Charismatic won the HOY award, but Afleet Alex and Smarty Jones - two of the best 3YO's we'll see in a while - finished second to Ghostzapper and Saint Liam, respectively.

It is all just luck really. I think most people would agree that Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex were better horses - and had better years - than someone like Charismatic. It just so happened that in 2004 and 2005 there was a fairly clear cut champion in the older horse division. When this is the case, that horse will usually win HOY. In 1999 you had a situation where the BCC was won by Cat Thief who had won only one other stakes race that year, and who had actually been beaten by Charismatic in the Derby. So obviously Cat Thief isn't going to be HOY....thus Charasmatic wins by default.

[Pointg5]

Originally Posted by miraja2

It is all just luck really. I think most people would agree that Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex were better horses - and had better years - than someone like Charismatic. It just so happened that in 2004 and 2005 there was a fairly clear cut champion in the older horse division. When this is the case, that horse will usually win HOY. In 1999 you had a situation where the BCC was won by Cat Thief who had won only one other stakes race that year, and who had actually been beaten by Charismatic in the Derby. So obviously Cat Thief isn't going to be HOY....thus Charasmatic wins by default.

I don't know how you can say Smarty and Afleet Alex had better years than Charismatic:

All three won a G2 then 2/3rd's of the Triple Crown, looks pretty even to me. Charismatic got really good in the Lexington Stakes and then went from there...

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Pointg5

I don't know how you can say Smarty and Afleet Alex had better years than Charismatic:

All three won a G2 then 2/3rd's of the Triple Crown, looks pretty even to me. Charismatic got really good in the Lexington Stakes and then went from there...

Smarty Jones won six stakes races in 2004 while Charismatic won three in 1999. Seems like pretty simple math to me.