The Value of leading at the 1st call on dirt

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Today's latest gem is that To Honor And Serve will be a better horse when he rates off the lead. They never are.

In the interest of keeping this thread alive, why don't you highlight this mantra with some examples.

As you said elsewhere, To Honor And Serve is likely to run into a horse or two that have more early speed than him.

Some recent classic colts that had frontrunning prowess at 2 and then had to adopt stalking positions at 3 include:

Coronado's Quest
Go For Gin
Big Brown
Smarty Jones
Afternoon Deelites
Unbridled's Song

How did they fare when taken off the pace?

Also, in this scenario (Derby prospects) vague factors like maturity and stamina come into play, so it's not a clear-cut situation of a frontrunner suddenly "taking back".

Try not to make references to Redding Collery.