The Preakness looks like a road show of Derby wanna B's

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Better Than Honour

Biker Boy is a 93 beyer, 3 rag horse. Unbridled's Heart beat nothing and had everything go his way. Denis of Cork ran a solid third in a race you might have heard of called the Kentucky Derby. He also threw up a 96 beyer at Oaklawn in a 8.5f race, like the Dwyer. So he probably doesn't need luck. He fits there perfectly.

The Dwyer is about a month after the Belmont and if he likes the Belmont track I would suspect you see Denis of Cork there. They still might pass on the Belmont and go to the Northern Dancer at Churchill though.

Denis of Cork is definitely in the Any Given Saturday category of horses.

First of all, Biker Boy got a 97 Beyer ( raw fig of 106 ). Second of all, Unbridled's Heart beat a relatively strong field of maidens, and beat them handily, and I'm not sure how setting a fast pace and drawing away with ease from a solid field, while running relatively faster than a horse you have anointed the second coming, Casino Drive ( who, by the way, had an absolutely perfect trip which you casually ignore ) fits your description of " everything going his way. " But, I guess when you post with an agenda its easy to ignore reality.

The 96 Beyer by Denis of Cork, slower than both Biker Boy and Unbridled's Heart, was earned under the most optimal conditions any horse can have. His Derby performance, by the way I bet him in the race, was decidedly mediocre, as all he did was suck up late, and never made any move whatsoever to attempt to win the race. He's OK, and I hope he does well, but right now I would prefer some of the lightly raced up and comers to the exposed likes of Denis of Cork.

Oh yeah, Denis of Cork couldn't have warmed up Any Given Saturday. I see you saved your most indefensible for last.

[Betsy]

BTW, just a couple of questions.

How do you quantify what a solid group of maidens is? Unfortunately, I don't have the Saturday DRF, so I can't recall the PP, but I don't recall that field being filled with promising horses. Most of them had had several mediocre starts and none (going into the race, anyway) looked to be particularly talented.

Another thing - are you just talking about raw figures? If so, then I guess I can see your point about UH. However, that horse just went to the front and drew away (impressively,obviously) from an ordinary group of maidens; he didn't overcome anything. Why is this horse different than any other horse who gets an easy lead and is never challenged? I only ask this because we've seem plenty of those types of performances and usually the comments (on this and other boards) are tempered in their enthusiasm as the winner had everything his own way.

I'll preface my last question/comment by saying that I saw you on the OTB channel on Sunday, so I know you liked Casino Drive's performance...... you didn't knock him in any way. However, I'm just curious as to why he is now being deemed to have had a perfect to sort of mitigate his performance. He did break pretty slowly (not terribly, but it was still not a good break) - isn't it to his credit that he dragged Kent back into the race? He also went through horses easily and didn't hesitate in drawing away. We're talking about a colt who hadn't run in almost three months, who had to deal with quarantine issues in Japan and then a long trip over here. His trainer said before the race that he didn't think CD was in winning shape.

Thanks in advance for your opinion -