Who Did the Derby Gods Frown On The Most and Why

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

I'm not a huge Union Rags fan, and wasn't interested in him Saturday ( I had to have one non-horrible opinion in the race ), but to ignore his trip is ridiculous. With all due respect to DrugS, his analogy to Bird Town is a poor one, as Union Rags had significant trouble, in a 20 horse field, that ( as Nick just pointed out ) put him in bad position to begin with, was exacerbated early in the running, and then even further complicated midway through the race.

That's the thing -- his trip isn't being ignored.

The only actual running Union Rags did came in the part of the race where everyone else was falling over dead.

I will admit I've come to detest Union Rags popularity more and more with each race.

When Union Rags won the Champagne in markedly slower time than My Miss Aurillea did in the Frizette (same day and distance)...he was made to be a superstar. He was made even money against a fairly deep BC Juvie field and she was made 2/1 against an honestly slow and weak Juv Fillies field.

When Union Rags got beat in the BC Juvenile. Hansen was loose, but he set strong fractions and raced on what I thought was the worst part of the track. Union Rags, got a setup, and had a clear wide trip on a track where saving ground was no advantage. Hansen was truthfully the better horse that day IMO, and most everyone wanted to make Union Rags defeat seem so heroic.

When Union Rags came back and beat News Pending and a Pletcher cripple who missed a work right before the race -- in a days lone route race where no figure could be trusted -- it was hailed as a super performance by some. The Ragozin Sheets somehow have Union Rags win that day faster than Bodemeister's Arkansas Derby ... and they kept the variant straight for the Ark Derby. That was mysterious to me.

Union Rags is 2/5 for the Florida Derby. He doesn't get a clear wide trip and the excuses start flying again. The Florida Derby horses have all bombed. Take Charge Indy and El Padrino both bombed in the Ky Derby. News Pending was 10th in the Lexington Stakes behind All Squared Up. Reveron, an 80 Beyer type horse just missed in the Fla Derby with a perfect trip and came out of it injured. The brutally slow Neck N' Neck was beaten 4 and half lengths.

Now all of sudden you've got people saying Leperoux can't ride or Leperoux doesn't fit the horse. Everytime the horse gets a clear wide trip he's unjustly hailed as a super horse (narrow defeat to Hansen, wearing down News Pending in a FoY where Ragozin botched a figure) everytime he doesn't get a clear wide trip he gets excused for a variety of reasons. He makes so much of his own trouble.