Watchmaker's 05-29 Blog

[Revidere]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Mike Watchmaker did us all a huge favor and posted a new blog about yesterday's races. Here are a few of the highlights:

"Without taking anything away from the way Shackleford refused to concede late in the Met Mile, Caleb’s Posse’s inability this year to close the deal has become an issue. Although Shackleford is a classic winner (since he is excelling in one turn races these days, it might be forgotten that he won last year’s Preakness) with a strong will to win, and while it is true he is in much better form right now than he was when he was trounced by Caleb’s Posse in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last fall, let’s be real: Caleb’s Posse still looked like he was one-to-a-million to catch Shackleford late in the Metropolitan even if he was going against the grain of a track kind to speed, and didn’t. And now, after three straight narrow defeats to start his 2012 campaign, I think what Caleb’s Posse needs more than anything else is a softer assignment to boost his confidence."

This is the type of thinking that kills American racing at the top level. The horse has gamely lost two races by a nose, the first of which came with a horrible setup and the 2nd of which came against a tremendously game horse who had made a clear early lead. Now, he suddenly needs to be in Grade II or Grade III races?

Then we have this:

"That was a fine win by It’s Tricky in the Ogden Phipps, but I don’t think it at all proves she’s a better horse than Awesome Maria, who finished third at just under 4-5. Trainer Todd Pletcher took responsibility for Awesome Maria’s loss right after the Phipps, saying in a most candid way that he did a bad job preparing his mare for this assignment."

Now, I imagine that it grinds Watchmaker's gears a bit that he had no idea who It's Tricky was prior to her Acorn win last year, as he had a series of allowance horses ranked ahead of her in the Watchmaker Watch. So, he's never really going to give her the proper credit. But, more importantly, how about Todd Pletcher? Eight weeks wasn't enough time to get your "star" ready? If this is the case, we can all plan on Todd Pletcher trainees running exclusively at Gulfstream.

Here is all that needs to be said:

[fantini33]

Beautiful....

[OldDog]

And here I've been thinking that rivalries are good for the sport.

[pointman]

Using Watchmaker's logic I guess Bodemeister needs a softer assignment to boost his confidence.

[alysheba4]

A.M. didnt fire but thats horse racing.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by alysheba4

A.M. didnt fire but thats horse racing.

Really? I think she ran about as well as she did in this race last year. The competition was just much tougher this year. Looks like she ran her race to me.

[alysheba4]

really, you know more than i do. when i looked at the form i included the 4 but thought A.M. was the best horse.