Mineshaft Handicap

[pick4]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

The longshot winner of the race gained a full length on Friesan Fire into the teeth of his supposedly 23 3/5 second quarter .. he also gained a half length into the 23 4/5 third quarter. He went from a stalker to a presser into the part of the race you isolate as the strongest.

Friesan Fire just ran his 4th total dud in his last five tries. You shouldn't make excuses for extremely favorable trips - and FF had one today.

Maybe Bridgmohan should have just taken that free ride on the lead instead of trying to trap General Quarters the whole way... but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because the horse didn't show up at all today.

I don't think Friesen Fires is a Grade 1 or even a Grade 2 horse. You are right about his easy first quarter but at that point he was pressured and and he fell apart. The internal splits were quick and if he was a top class racehorse he should have gutted it out. I pointed out the quick fractions as the reason this horse threw in the towel.

The initial poster mentioned about the poor ride. There a few differences between the 09 and 10 FF. One is Assmusen trains and I'm sure he has different opinions about conditioning a racehorse. The other is blinkers were added in his last race. The Assman was training this horse to be more agressive and with blinks that usually adds speed.

[The Bid]

Oh it's a dumb ride. Whether or not the horse showed up doesn't matter to me as I did not bet. I just think bridgmoham took him out of his game and rated lone speed. He's a second tier jock, if he didn't ride for assmussen he'd be around 8pct.

[Indian Charlie]

FF was a nice horse. He was ruined by his handling for the TC last year.

Undoubtedly he had problems already before then though.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by pick4

The initial poster mentioned about the poor ride. There a few differences between the 09 and 10 FF. One is Assmusen trains and I'm sure he has different opinions about conditioning a racehorse. The other is blinkers were added in his last race. The Assman was training this horse to be more agressive and with blinks that usually adds speed.

Didn't Freisan Fire wear blinkers throughout his career?

I'd be shocked if he made more than a couple of starts before calling it a day. He looked horrendous in the final 1/16th.

Last place finishes in the New Orleans, Oaklawn, and Alysheba seem reasonable.