Bellamy Road fans beware:

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I disagree. The horse was ready to run and he proved it by running a very strong race. He didn't win it not because of any physical problems but because he just ran into a better horse. But he proved he was ready to run. A worse decision would have been to run in the King's Bishop where he would have been required to go all out for 7f, a much tougher task than a 10f race where u aren't all out but for a few furlongs.

The fact is that this horse battled problems from the start. There were reasons why he got such a long break after his 2yo season and didn't start his 3yo season until late.

The lack of competition in those two spring races made Bellamy Road look like a world beater and while he was a talented horse, he was nowhere near that good. None of his speed figures, save for the Wood, were anything close to suggesting a superstar. Hell, they didn't even suggest a star. That race was a fluke performance for him, much like the one for Midway Road at Keeneland when he got that 120+ number. Just some days, it all comes together.......the track, the conditions, the competition, and Beyer's frame of mind in deciding what he wants to give a race.

You make some good points. However, the comparison to Midway Road is not one of them. Midway Road's figure came on a sloppy track, where fluke performances and huge speed figs are much more common. Bellamy Road's Wood fig was legitimate.

--Dunbar