Palace Malice

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Easy Goer was an all-time great horse. It's ridiculous that a horse need only win a few races at Gulfstream with moderate figures, and outfinish Golden Soul home in the Kentucky Derby in order for flattering comparisons to him to emerge by the Associated Press.

In their defense (well, not quite) it wasn't misjudging Orb and Gulfstream so much as lazy journalism. They went 'Oh the connections are the same as Easy Goer? It's like my story's writing itself!' In many cases I don't think they bothered to go much deeper than that. In the ones who did, I think it was less that they thought Orb was like Easy Goer than they just wanted it to be true so badly.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

In their defense (well, not quite) it wasn't misjudging Orb and Gulfstream so much as lazy journalism. They went 'Oh the connections are the same as Easy Goer? It's like my story's writing itself!' In many cases I don't think they bothered to go much deeper than that. In the ones who did, I think it was less that they thought Orb was like Easy Goer than they just wanted it to be true so badly.

I bristled when some of them, like Marcus Hersch, would say 'Shug's best 3-year-old since Easy Goer'

At least they didn't give into the preposterous Easy Goer comparisons, but Coronado's Quest would have had a field day with Orb in a fairly run race.

Imagine Coronado's Quest having Merit Man's trip in the Florida Derby, instead of finishing 3rd beaten 5 lengths like Merit Man was in the Florida Derby, Coronado's Quest might have won the Florida Derby over Orb by 15 lengths, and probably geared down.

Splendid performance by Merit Man in the Woody Stephens, by the way, he was 11th beaten 27 lengths at 12/1.