Strong Pretender Excuses Thread

[randallscott35]

Originally Posted by Kasept

I'm sorry I didn't just delete this thread the minute I saw the title...

Instead of looking to attack the 6, 9, 11 horses that finish behind the SINGLE winner of these stakes, how about some credit for the performances of those that won?

Chetain emerged today as a real nice horse... Classic Campaign won a thrilling turf stake... And people are looking to create negative attributes towards ones that 'didn't win'...

I don't get it... And I frankly, hate it.

Race fans complain UNENDINGLY about premature retirements, and here you have a handful of horses BACK for their 4 year old seasons and they're immediately decried as useless off single starts. It's ridiculous.

Jazil got back to the races after a 6 month layoff to start a season off an the same injury that ENDED Smarty Jones' career... Maybe you'd prefer he just be sent off to one of Shadwell's stud farms? Strong Contender, and Saint for that matter, have bigger objectives on their itinerary than the Mr. Prospector. And all three trainers of these horses made it very clear what was on their minds going into these races.

Why is any discussion of a loss these days labeled under 'excuses'?... Defeats in racing are far more frequent than wins. There are all kinds of reasons that races go the way they do. What possible complaint would anyone have with the performances of Saint and Greeley behind Chatain today? What complaint would anyone have with Johannesburg Star's performance? Etc... 'Seasons' and 'careers' are bodies of work. Not single snapshots.

Excellent points. And I was happy with how SNS ran. Even being 3rd, he should move forward off this....But yes, positive threads on horses should outweigh these ones.

[Danzig]

good points by several on here.
i'm just glad they're all racing. we should all know by now that horses don't always run at their best.
also, chatain may be a star in the making, after missing a lot of racing due to various injuries.
it's only january, hopefully many more races to come from all these.

[Bravado2112]

I have no strong opinion on Strong Contender beyond the fact that he's a talented and inconsistent horse who occasionally throws down huge efforts (I think the Dwyer figure is pretty legit), but I think the Ward's comments BEFORE the race were pretty telling:

Strong Contender, who shares high weight of 120 pounds with Sweetnorthernsaint, may be at a bit of a disadvantage in the Hal’s Hope, having not started since winning the Super Derby on Sept. 23. He has worked twice since shipping to Gulfstream in December.

“He’s probably going to need this race, but this one should set him up perfectly for the Donn and especially the Santa Anita Handicap,” said Ward.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/81662.html