Slew's Tizzy.. stuns Lex @ 40-1

[Pedigree Ann]

The jocks have finally figured out that they CAN set slow fractions and still win IF they have a good enough horse. Teuflesburg wasn't good enough.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

The jocks have finally figured out that they CAN set slow fractions and still win IF they have a good enough horse. Teuflesburg wasn't good enough.

Those fractions weren't slow. They were square and honest. He ran them off their feet.

[rgustafson]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Those fractions weren't slow. They were square and honest. He ran them off their feet.

steve, your post is right on the money. Very honest fractions and the track played very much like it did on Thurs. As far as Beyer's column about Keeneland, he knows next to nothing about how this surface will play from day to day, just like the rest of us.

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by rgustafson

steve, your post is right on the money. Very honest fractions and the track played very much like it did on Thurs.

RG,

I thought he ran a terrific race... Look at the internal quarters and internal halves.. Outstanding..

:23.4
:24.1 (:48.0)
:24.2 (1:12.2/:48.3)
:24.2 (1:36.2/:48.4)
:06.2 (1:43.1/:30.4)

Rebuffed every challenge and spurted away at will when confronted.. Well prepared by Fox for this... Well ridden by Albarado, whom I roundly criticize regularly but has had a great spring... The question begs where this colt could have been had he not clipped heels in the Risen Star...

Originally Posted by Kasept

RG,

I thought he ran a terrific race... Look at the internal quarters and internal halves.. Outstanding..

:23.4
:24.1 (:48.0)
:24.2 (1:12.2/:48.3)
:24.2 (1:36.2/:48.4)
:06.2 (1:43.1/:30.4)

Rebuffed every challenge and spurted away at will when confronted.. Well prepared by Fox for this... Well ridden by Albarado, whom I roundly criticize regularly but has had a great spring... The question begs where this colt could have been had he not clipped heels in the Risen Star...

Im still shocked. I cant believe this horse ran this well. This is one you can go back and look at past races and say what if... and I still dont get it right now. Thats racing. Of course I have not been with the horse to see the progression, we know these animals change drastically, but this one was a blind-side for me.

All I can conclude is that the poly track was perfectly suited to the way this horse strikes the ground on this day since it apparently changes in its physical characteristics fairly drastically with temperature. I wish I was near some of this stuff so I could run on it myself.

[rgustafson]

Originally Posted by Kasept

RG,

I thought he ran a terrific race... Look at the internal quarters and internal halves.. Outstanding..

:23.4
:24.1 (:48.0)
:24.2 (1:12.2/:48.3)
:24.2 (1:36.2/:48.4)
:06.2 (1:43.1/:30.4)

Rebuffed every challenge and spurted away at will when confronted.. Well prepared by Fox for this... Well ridden by Albarado, whom I roundly criticize regularly but has had a great spring... The question begs where this colt could have been had he not clipped heels in the Risen Star...

Steve, I agree and bet on him in the La. Derby at even longer odds then he went off at yesterday. When he ran what I felt was a somewhat mediocre race, I got off him. much to my dismay yesterday.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Kasept

RG,

I thought he ran a terrific race... Look at the internal quarters and internal halves.. Outstanding..

:23.4
:24.1 (:48.0)
:24.2 (1:12.2/:48.3)
:24.2 (1:36.2/:48.4)
:06.2 (1:43.1/:30.4)

Rebuffed every challenge and spurted away at will when confronted.. Well prepared by Fox for this... Well ridden by Albarado, whom I roundly criticize regularly but has had a great spring... The question begs where this colt could have been had he not clipped heels in the Risen Star...

I thought it was terrific too. What I really liked is not only did he run like you stated above, but had to be pulled up by the outrider. Tizzy looked like he wanted to go around for one more! He was bouncing back to the barn after presentations too. Lovely animal.

[alysheba4]

throwing darts is the best way to cap that joke of a track.........

[rgustafson]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

With all due respect, Beyer was pretty spot on for the first week and a half or so of the meet and the track was even more biased towards closers last fall. Just this week the track seems to be more condusive to horses on or near the pace. How many wire to wire winners were there the first 10 days? A handful maybe.

DaHoss, my point is that there have been a grand total of 28 days of racing over the Keeneland poly. I just think that it is way too soon to come to what may prove to be unwarrented conclusions about the surface.

[Hickory Hill Hoff]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

Agreed and the track is definitely playing different than it was last week. Seems faster, more kind to speed.

I think the way the jocks rode that race last week (Blue Grass) was the main reason it was run so slow. Nobody wanted to run on the front end because the way the track was playing against "speed". Run like a turf race, the main players didn't want to get "killed" in that prep. That's why I think Great Hunter can bounce back with a good effort in two weeks. I'm not taking anything away from Dominican either and as usual; Street Sense ran his "A" race. I'm giving last week's Blue Grass...a pass .

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

That's a fair arguement. It just seems to me this week that more horses are running well while being either on the lead or right there. That was a death sentence for the majority of the meet and definitely last year. Not sure if they tweaked the track a bit or what, maybe it's because the weather is a bit warmer as I heard mentioned.

Yeah it's the warmer weather. Still it's almost impossible to play pick 3's and 4's at that track unless you're on PG's level.

[golfer]

While watching, and ripping up most of my tickets, I thought that the track had been "tampered" with. Although I don't follow Keeneland as closely as some here, it definitely seemed to play differently today. Which only makes a difficult task borderline impossible

[Scav]

While I don't think this field was particular strong, what this shows is how strong the 3 year old races were down at the Fairgrounds. Friggin Notional just HAD to get hurt, this would have only strengthen his case.

[Cannon Shell]

I think I'm Derbyed out already

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by golfer

While watching, and ripping up most of my tickets, I thought that the track had been "tampered" with. Although I don't follow Keeneland as closely as some here, it definitely seemed to play differently today. Which only makes a difficult task borderline impossible

Golf,

Speed has been holding better and better as the week progressed..

[golfer]

Thanks, Steve.. that's the problem with being a "weekend warrior", you tend to miss some things. Do you think this is a natural occurrence, or did they do something to create this?

[pick4]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Golf,

Speed has been holding better and better as the week progressed..

The temperatures having been rising as the week has gone on too. It seemed like the Cushion Track at Hollywood was an honest track but the temps were a lot higher than Keeneland was during the fall meet and this years spring meet until the past few days. It will be interesting to see how things play out at Del Mar during the middle of summer with a mile track with a short stretch.

In years past I noticed that Keeneland was much more speed biased in the spring and in the fall the speed and rail bias was much less of a factor. It was also warmer in the spring. This year we've had record low temps in Lexington and maybe that is the reason the Keeneland main track has been so unfriendly to speed.

I do not have a grasp on this track. I'll continue to tread lightly until I do.