HOTY: If Zenyatta wins the Classic...

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

The fact that the turf male of the year finished second ahead of the good natural dirt horses is pretty telling, IMO, particularly considering Gio Ponti's one other synthetic try was pretty mediocre.

I thought sending Summer Bird to the Classic and not to a race like the Clark was a huge mistake before yesterday.

Gio Ponti has won a grade 3 on synthetic.
Summer Bird outran proven synthetic horses yesterday.
Gio Ponti could be good on dirt but since he's never attempted, he is,and should be labeled a turf horse.
Einstein has proven himself on every surface and was outrun by Summer Bird.
Girolamo was the only dirt horse in the field who had never tried synthetic and ran poorly.
RVW was the only turf horse in the field who had never tried synthetic and ran poorly
Regal Ransom was the only dirt horse in the field who had previously tried synthetic unsuccessfully.
Zenyatta is a proven dirt horse who happens to be located in synthetic surroundings.

It is a myth that turf runners are better on synthetic than dirt horses.The fact is that more turf runners attempt synthetics than dirt runners.

Summer Bird was not good enough to win yesterday.It is much too convenient to use the surface as an excuse.