War Pass out with fracture
 

Haven't seen this online yet, but War Pass is off the Derby trail with a fracture, presumably suffered in the Wood Memorial.

Looks like the courier journal has it up.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...04/1002/SPORTS

Surprise, surprise.

Steve was just saying the other day how few have dropped out compared to most years......advantage Big Brown with one pace pressure gone (hey that's my opinion).

Spyder

Extending your redboarding buffoonery to injuries now?

That's precious.

:mad:

This quote is precious.....

“It’s been an uphill battle this year, what can I tell you,” Zito said this morning by phone. “Just a struggle,unfortunately. He’s a great horse who just had obstacle after obstacle."

The obstacle was Zito. I knew he would run this horse in the ground. Everyone knew he wasn't going to get the longer distances but Zito kept on going with him and broke him down.

Good job by War Pass to accomplish what he did despite of his trainer. Sad day for the horse and hopefully he will recover.

And the hard on continues

What a day for the naysayers?

At what point would you have made a decision differently from what Zito did? It's clear your distaste for Zito blinds you to reality, but where did he make a mistake? The horse's 2YO campaign was perfectly laid out. He brought him back in an easy spot. He ran poorly at Tampa but came out of it OK, then he did what any logical trainer would have, he ran him in the Wood Memorial.

It's perfectly OK to have preferences for some trainer over others and while I'm pissing in the wind even replying to you, why don't you take the blinkers off for a second and realize that injuries happen to horses, even to ones that are being handled with care.

NT

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but this is the third freakishly fast Zito trained horse that has its problems.

Bellamy Road, Commentator and now War Pass.

Since I am relatively new here, why does this seemed to have touched a nerve here? It seems to me most of Trainer's mentioned here have had some sort of criticism aimed at them, but none of this depth of reaction...

The term IMBECILE comes to mind here......and I'm not talking about Mr Zito.

So where should he run him you f#ckin jagoff? The Swale followed by The Bay Shore? Ran him into the ground? He ran 3 races this year, one being basically a workout.

Gotta love public chat boards where even the biggest idiots have their say.

whodey, Eurobounce, whatever you want to call him, is a fervent Zito basher and takes every opportunity to make sure everyone knows this.

That being said, THIS makes things interesting two weeks from today...

Pretty hard to see how it favors Big Brown. If he doesn't rate he doesn't win. Doesn't matter how many horses are on the lead, all you know is you don't want to be there. With Bob Black Jack (109 beyer) in there along with Recapturetheglory (102 beyer) you have two very fast horses that want the lead, both of which have proven they are fast animals but neither looks like they can take it 10f with a quick pace. Horses like Big Brown and Gayego must sit off the pace no matter who is in there or they will be cooked. Churchill Downs is not the front running biased Gulfstream.

The bad thing about War Pass not running is he was going to take a ton of money for a horse that had absolutely zero chance of winning.

War Pass Breakdown
 

The Wood was run 2 races after my horse broke down. I think the track had something to do with it. It was deep and the front end was colapsing. They cacelled racing the day before and were working overtime to get it ready for Saturday.........

I suspect we've seen the last of War Pass on the track. With races getting longer this year and the 2yo trophy at home, it seems rather unlikely they would even try to get him back.

agreed..the article above basically said as much

And this horse’s injury isn’t nearly as several as Brass Hat. So they can come back.

Whether or not he could or would, I don’t know. I kind of doubt very seriously if they will because he’s got such tremendous value as a stallion.

Freakishly fast is it's own problem unto itself. Slow horses are not as susceptible to injury.

Anybody here care to give Zito the credit he rightly deserves for x-raying something that many wouldn't?

And finding the problem before the horse blows the ankle apart on the track?

Huh?
I agree that he probably won't be back, but what do you mean by the races getting longer this year? Did I miss something?
Has the 7f King's Bishop been transformed into a 12f prep for the BC marathon?
Is the 8f "Met Mile" now the "Met Five Mile?"
Is the 8.5f Dwyer now a steeplechase event?

There are a few subjects that - for whatever reason - inspire incredibly heated debate here. Off the top of my head this list includes:

1) Lost in the Fog
2) Polytrack
3) Perfect Drift
4) Nick Zito
5) Bernardini

There are probably more that I am forgetting, but basically these subjects generate big arguments because there are certain individuals here that have very strong opinions either for or against these topics. Once they stake out their extreme positions, other people argue strenuously with them. In the case of Zito, it is basically just whodey taking every conceivable opportunity to take a shot at Zito. Add in the fact that Zito has some staunch supporters (and in some cases, friends) on this board, and you have yourself a recipe for acrimony.

OK, the ones that could actually improve his value. He's proven he can mile, but he needs to stretch on out to improve his value in the shed.

He sure is. 2nd fastest dirt beyer in the Kentucky Derby field. His doesn't have blazing speed but he has solid early speed and he can stay. Horse is improving and is very dangerous if he gets loose on the lead, which he shouldn't, but if you got a triple digit beyer and you are improving....

Think of this: LaPenta and Lane's End give the horse time off, and then bring him back into training late fall/winter. Bring to racing a fantastic 4-year-old miler, on a campaign to the Breeders Cup in the fall ...

Oh, now I am seeing pretty white unicorns. And poppies ... :rolleyes:

Do you watch many races at Hawthorne?

Anyone else think we'd be more likely to see him back at some point if the Breeder's Cup wasn't being run on synthetic?

The Dwyer has basically become a grade 2 race that nobody cares about. The Met Mile means he has to face older horses. The King's Bishop is a nice race if you need a grade 1, but he doesn't. There is no race he can win this year that will increase his value at stud. He is by Cherokee Run. Everybody already knows he is essentially an 8f horse.

This is basically a call to be made by Lane's End. Highly unlikely LaPenta is interested in winning anything left on the table for this horse.

Wow.

I remember hearing the same thing about War Emblem and he did it at sportsman's park which had an even worse bias.

The fact is he has a 102 beyer and destroyed 2 solid horses. He is a fast animal.

You can also argue that Gulfstream Park is a speed favoring track. I don't hear anyone saying Big Brown isn't a fast animal.

Hmmmmm.....interesting point.
I think that might be because Big Brown is a quality stakes horse and Recapturetheglory stinks.

Are we all sure Recapturetheglory needs the lead? I may be hoping he can lay off the pace when the big day comes, but this War Pass withdrawal does help Big Brown and will prevent that 3-1 someone mentioned might be possible for him

First of all Recapturetheglory doesn't stink. Not only is he an improving horse with a 102 beyer but as a 2yr old he ran a solid race at Churchill finishing second to Cool Coal Man, who is a very nice dirt horse, winning the Fountain of Youth beating Monba, Court Vision, and Adriano.

Recapture is also a seasoned horse that will be making his 3rd start off the layoff.

I won't be betting Recapture but he is a fast horse that will be a huge pace factor. If a horse like BB goes with him he likely will not be there at the end.

As for Big Brown, he is a quality stakes horse but he still only has won at Gulfstream Park, unless you count a turf race. He also will have no work over the track, so the "quality" stakes horse still has yet to prove he is anything more than a horse for the course, just like you are saying about Recapture.

always felt this horse had distance limitations anyway. zito should be smarter than me so i won't question that. but these super "fast" horses rarely win at classic distances any way. hows big brown supposed to be helped ? i see him as the same kind of animal, plus you already know hes got problems .

Sorry. I like to make my opinions based on facts. His 102 beyer in a race where the two horses that ran behind him ran their usual mid 90's beyers, makes me believe he is a fast horse. Facts are facts.

Yet another example of a what will prove to be a popular thread that is not directly about handicapping.

While it's unfortunate that the horse broke down, he wasn't winning the Derby.

Most of this board isn't about handicapping. The Paddock isn't Selections, nor Triple Crown Archives. Room for anything related to horse racing at Steve's house.

the track was a conveyor belt. the race was over at the first turn. There is more to horse racing than speed figures.