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Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind
The inner has been even, save from Feb 16th til Feb 27th, and I Want Revenge had as easy a trip as possible.....stalking the crawling pace of a distance challenged horse. Now, he absolutely ran the best race today, of that there can be no doubt, but the question you need to ask yourself is what you think the absolute intentions were from the various connections. Don't get me wrong, this is a guessing game, and most will hypothesize based on their own wants, but it's hard to believe given the way Imperial Council was ridden, that the plan was not to use this race as a learning experience and stepping stone. I'm sure they wanted to win, but they also wanted to use this race in the manner it was advertised, as a Triple Crown prep.
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All that Imperial Council showed today is that he can suck up and pass tired horses, with a, positionally, perfect trip. I don't have as high a regard for Shug as most do. Obviously, he is the perfect trip, suckup trainer. He doesn't have anything new in his arsenal --- suckup on the rail, come out for a clear run in the stretch. I suspect that if this horse CONTENDED early, he'd have done what the rest of the field did: BACKED UP, significantly, late.
I don't get some of this. A horse duels OUTSIDE but he's doing it with a suspect router, so it's not of note. Why then, didn't any of the other non distance challenged horses with enough speed to stay close do so? Why, contrarily, did they all seem to be run off their feet, unable to keep up as early as going into the turn. I mean, DAMN, the pace was CRAWLING, right?. Under these constraints, NO HORSE would be able to get credit for wiring a field.
What's sad about all this is that we saw about as impressive a performance as it gets by a horse. BUT the winner probably is not much horse. Which certainly doesn't say much for the rest of the field.
I'm eagerly waiting for his BEYER. I wonder how it'll compare to his POLY numbers (which, I hear are SLOWER -- by default).