Proud Tower Too

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I thought it was a poor tactical ride by Cohen myself.

PTT is a horse who raced off to a clear early lead, and got absolutely drowned by Smokey Stover going a furlong shorter in his prior start---two starts back, he was involved in a torrid pace battle at 5.5 furlongs, in a race that collapsed. The winner coming from the clouds.

LH is a horse coming off a Grade 1 win, in what was a soft paced version of the Malibu Stakes. LH is clearly not as fast as PTT early, and has never hooked a horse before with anything close to PTT's raw speed.

It's not so much that Cohen opted to give LH the rail, back the pace down some, and rate just off him---however, if he was commited to using those tactics, I think he should have pressed the issue and took it to LH a lot earlier than he did.

IMO, he basically opted not to use PTT's greatest asset, his natural speed, and tried to win the race by making LH work a little harder early on, and just outfinish him late. It's rare when a one-way speed horse, who's coughed up back-to-back leads going 5.5fs and 6fs, can outfinish a horse exiting a Grade 1 win at seven furlongs, in which he finished up nicely.