Ride on Normandy Invasion

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by Seattleallstar

dunno what to think of it, I think he hit the front way too early but I think it would not have mattered. Reminds me of what Javy did on Bernardini in the BC Classic, in any case I have been hearing and reading that the connections are not too thrilled with the ride he gave. If he were a bit more patient could Normandy have won?

The second quarter did him in. He simply had horses backing into him when he hit the front. Oxbow is another one whose backers could second guess.
If Golden Soul had won the connections of Orb could claim Rosario made a premature 4th quarter move, but Golden Soul didn't win.
Normandy Invasion wasn't good enough. Three races in a row now he has excuses. Horrible trip, pace dynamics against him and now premature move. If the jockeys could operate the horses like tyco cars they could run THE perfect race. So if indeed NI lost the race to the 3 horses in front of him because of a premature 2nd quarter move no one will ever know who else in the field could have factored if their rides were perfect.

[VOL JACK]

I tweeted earlier that the ride was almost identical to the Bernardini ride.

[Calzone Lord]

All of the early speed other than Oxbow was totally fried.

Oxbow finished a heroic 6th beaten 10 lengths, but it gets ugly after that.

Palace Malice stopped cold in the stretch even though he was free running on a loose lead. Goldencents was beaten 50 lengths. Vyjack was beaten more than 50 lengths. Verrezano was beaten 16 lengths with no trip excuse. It'smyluckyday was beaten 22 lengths.


After the fact, it's clear that Castallano basically misjudged the pace on Normandy Invasion.

Pace meltdowns happen.

The Giacomo year the half mile fraction was 45.38 and the final time was 2.02.75

This year, the half mile fraction was 45.33 and the final time was 2:02.89

The pace was 0.05 seconds faster this year than the Giacomo year, and the final time was 0.14 seconds slower this year than the Giacomo year.

Good horses like Flower Alley and Bellamy Road both got fried chasing that pace. Afleet Alex made a premature inside move that I'm sure Rose regrets. He was flat in the stretch.

Giacomo was 18th beaten 16 lengths and Don't Get Mad was 19th beaten 19 lengths and they surged wide to finish 1st and 4th at odds of 50/1 and 30/1.

This year it was five deep closers making up the top five spots. All of them raced 18+ lengths off of the early pace other than Normandy Invasion...who was surprisingly close and made the eye-catching early move.

[Conrad]

I used Oxbow and Revolutionary on top and thought Oxbow ran his tits off.
Wonder how things turn out for him if Palace Malice doesn't run off and drag them thru those splits.
He never actually hit the lead though (if so it was for about a second or two) but turning for home i thought he was a top 3 finisher or even a winner.

Got in good but nothing to show for it - Golden Soul knocked me out of saver tris with the winner over my top two picks.
Would like to see Oxbow in Baltimore.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by Conrad

Would like to see Oxbow in Baltimore.

If he still has a pulse, he will be there.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

If he still has a pulse, he will be there.

True.

I think his obsession with running horses in the triple crown series is a good thing this year because (unlike some other years) both of his colts' performances yesterday actually do justify entering them in the Preakness.