Look Out, Quality Road

[the_fat_man]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Tell me what Valdivia should have done differently in those two races (The Mervyn LeRoy and the Californian). In the first race he got beat, they were trying to teach the horse to rate. They laid 2nd behind Ball Four and they never caught him. In the next race, they obviously couldn't give Ball four too easy of a lead because they were afraid he would go wire-to-wire again. So they laid about a length off him on a moderate pace. They beat him that time but they didn't beat Informed.

I don't know if I'm on record about his trips. You can try a search. The point, however, is that this horse is fast enough to, basically, control ANY route race up to 10F. It took Valdivia until the Gold Cup to get this right (excluding the races where he was beating nothing) -- and he need a 2-1 finish around the track to do it. As soon as he lost with this horse, they should've booted his ass. Not a year later, and, after he'd left for the east coast.

JMO