As to the horse, it just shows what pace can do to the outcome.
Denis of Cork's run in the Southwest (Pace 112, Speed 94) was the trip of a lifetime. I'm not going to photoshop pictures with circles, but he sat well of a runoff leader going way, way too fast and just inherited the win when all those in front of him collapsed. He had a perfect scenario and got a whopping mid 90s Beyer.
In the Illinois Derby, he stayed in basically the same spot, but the pace was a slow for those type horses. When the jockey of Golden Spikes took back, it allowed the leader to cruise alone up front and he simply had too much left turning for home and was never going to be caught.
Now, I don't think the track was particularly biased, though speed certainly didn't hurt, but the race was biased due to the pace. Even so, how do you explain him getting beaten rather easily by Atoned?
|