Pacific Classic

Originally Posted by Gander

Let me add that I was very much against Tin Man when originally analyzing this race and the horses I thought most likely to win were Ace and Better Talk Now.

After watching the race, this is clearly what I think:

1) Yes the other jockeys were mistaken to let Tin Man go out and run slow.
2) Yes English Channel got a wide trip, but whos to say it cost him a win? Will never know.
3) Cacique got the best trip of anyone besides Tin Man and even with the pace being as slow as it was, he had every shot to go by if he was really that good. He wasnt.
4) Better Talk Now should retire. First time in his life hes run 2 very poor back to back races.
5) Tin Man is a lot better than I thought.

Tim your statement on number 3 is absolutely absurd, and I mean ridiculous. The winner came home in 22:3. There is absolutely no way that Cacique or anyone else was going to go by, Secretariat wouldn't have gone by. At a mile and a quarter when a horse is on the hedge saving all ground and comes home in 22:3, well I mean you might not see that the rest of your life. It was the function of a pace that was TWENTY LENGTHS SLOWER than the fillies ran in the Beverly D. Cacique was very good, I just don't know where you are coming from by saying he had every chance to get by. Do you have any idea how crazy that is to say? He was two lengths back and also in tghe outside path, in order to have "gotten by" the winner he would have to have come home in 22 flat. Do you really think its reasonable or at all sane to say that a horse wasn't that good because he couldn't come home in 22 flat for the last 1/4 mile of a 1 1/4 turf race? Tim, thats just maniacal.