Zito Comes to His Senses

[randallscott35]

I give Mike credit b/c in Sun King's first race a few years back at the Spa, Mike said that this was Zito's Derby horse, before he ever started. Now he turned out to be more of his older horse, but still.

And you know who won that maiden race? None other than Silver Train.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by oracle80

The perception that igonrant folks carry that he is a hanger is ridiculous.
I mean Invasor was being heralded as the only horse who could beat bernadini, and he beat him a nose. So basically you are talking about inches being the difference in the total perception of both horses. Since Invasor has only one loss on his dancecard, I'd say that qulaifies him as a super game animal.
In his Met Mile loss he was beaten a head by a horse whose won photo after photo at the highest level of competition and has shown to be an incredibly game animal.
Those two narrow losses to top notch horses do not make him a hanger in my book. What they make him is a horse capable of fantastic efforts when the race unfolds as preferable to his running style.
Hangers are horses who get beat time and time again regardless of trip and the figure the race comes up with. And I know i will be castrated by his fans, but Perfect Drift would come to mind these days as a textbook example. Hes consistently 2nd or 3rd regardless of what the pace is, and what the final figure of the race is.
If you think that had Invasor or Silver Train not been in those races, that Sun King would have pulled himself up and not won, I have a bridge to sell you.
What he is an unlucky horse. I've seen quiet a few of those in my life and like to think I know the difference. Medaglia was probably the most unlucky horse I ever saw. His 2nd place finishes were almost always to horses who freaked out and ran crazy figures that they never ran close to before or after, or in Perfectly Pleasant's case, a horse who was scary good for 4-6 months in his life.
Candy Ride(Pac Classic), Sarava(Belmont), Buddha(wood), Volponi(Classic) all ran races that they had never run before and never after by huge margins. medag was just an unlucky horse and the notion that he was a hanger was adsurd as evidenced by his many great wins.
Some horses are just unlucky and part of Sun King's poor luck is his running style which inhibits him in many races. But his Commonwealth race(in addition to his other wins) shoud really be watched again by anyone who thinks hes a hanger. Racing against a HUGE speed bias(its the day sinister minister won, and people tried to use Sun King's win as proof their wasn't a bias because they were too dumb to look at all the other races and see that Sun King's performance was just incredible kinda like Watchmaker tried to use Anees closing win on a ridiculous speed biased BC day at Gulf as proof their wasn't a bias that day ) he powered past the leaders like a runaway train on a track that heavily favored speed at a distance that wasn't optimal to him.

I loved Medaglia D' Oro, may have had a string of seconditis, I think he came back too soon to run in the Pac Classic, 2.5 week layoff, but he has The Travers and The Whitney to post on his resume. And some very game seconds, IMO tremoundous horse. Loved him.

[Betsy]

Originally Posted by tycharles01

The JCGC seems to me like a big moneymaker.

Bernardini is goin to be 3/5 or 4/5 and although tons of people dont think he needs/wants to be on the lead, he will be pushing the rabbit Spanish Chestnut for the first 7/7.5f. Guys like it or not Spanish Chestnut only has 1 job and that is to get out there and run like he is running a sprint,and Bernardini is not gonna like being far back,and if Chestnut runs the fractions they want him to you could finally see Bernardini dying in the stretch. (Note-Even tho this is not the best field, there will be no Double Galore,High Finance,or Hemingway's Key run against him going into the stretch)

Now I like Sun King alot,however like most say this is not his distance and if there are 9 or 10 horses in the race he might have a hard trip to the front. Def should catch alot of horses tiring with the pace tho

West Virginia might be a nice play after this is all said and done

I'm not sure why you think Bernardini will be pushing Spanish Chestnut or why he doesn't like being far back. Have you seen his races prior to the Jim Dandy? And Tom Albertrani is quoted a saying he prefers Bernardini to run from off the pace. Frankly, so do I. Bernardini will not be dying in the stretch.

[zippyneedsawin]

Originally Posted by tycharles01

The JCGC seems to me like a big moneymaker.

Bernardini is goin to be 3/5 or 4/5 and although tons of people dont think he needs/wants to be on the lead, he will be pushing the rabbit Spanish Chestnut for the first 7/7.5f. Guys like it or not Spanish Chestnut only has 1 job and that is to get out there and run like he is running a sprint,and Bernardini is not gonna like being far back,and if Chestnut runs the fractions they want him to you could finally see Bernardini dying in the stretch. (Note-Even tho this is not the best field, there will be no Double Galore,High Finance,or Hemingway's Key run against him going into the stretch)

Now I like Sun King alot,however like most say this is not his distance and if there are 9 or 10 horses in the race he might have a hard trip to the front. Def should catch alot of horses tiring with the pace tho

West Virginia might be a nice play after this is all said and done

I don't think Bernardini was anywhere near the pace in the Preakness.. and that worked out OK for him.