I think you are blaming Neil Howard and forgetting that Bill Farish, who owns Lane's End, owns the horse. You have to realize that the Met Mile is about as prestigeous a race as there is for breeders. Clearly they wanted to see if they felt he could win that race in order to solidify his standing as a stallion. I imagine Bill Farish ( correctly ) made the call. However, after his flat performance in the Westchester they decided to change course. Perhaps running him back in the Pimlico Special in 16 days was a mistake but don't forget it also was a sloppy track.
The bottom line is he's a very nice horse but probably not nearly as good as many ( not necessarily incorrectly ) believed after his bang up races at Saratoga last summer. Making a run at the Met makes real sense. They decided to prep for it to see where he stood....and found out. Right now it's sort of hard to know what to do as he needs to win a big race to be a significant stallion so they will have to take some shots. My best guess is they will point for the Whitney and hope Curlin doesn't show up.
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Just more nebulous nonsense from BBB
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