Much respect to Mine That Bird

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Mine That Bird certainly got a great pace setup ... but he made an excellent account of himself for sure.

Looks like the tactic of having him jog and loaf through the very early stages has moved him up big time. Obviously.

I'm curious to see how he runs in the Belmont when you can't loaf away the early stages of the race and expect them to come back to you because the pace is often much slower. ... baring the entry of any speed sprinter types like High Finance or baring the entry of a dominant speed router like a Smarty Jones who was forced to brush off an insanely premature middle move from a Malibu winner.

To me RA is a dominant speed router - and I like MTB's Belmont chances better if she runs .. they won't let her have a Da Tara jog on an uncontested lead trip obviously.

Even though I thought RA was a cinch today .. I got burnt because I played against MTB underneath .. and I will eagerly play against him in the Belmont again if RA doesn't run.

RA saw real pace pressure today from a very good and very fresh speed horse coming off of a razor sharp win. Look at the horses who were also wide into the 1st turn and not far behind her ... I believe they were Friesan Fire, POTN, and General Quarters ... all of them were exhusted and beaten by a country mile.

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

I'm curious to see how he MTB runs in the Belmont when you can't loaf away the early stages of the race and expect them to come back to you because the pace is often much slower.

I wanted to say this.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by pgardn

I wanted to say this.

I was thinking the same thing. People often think because of the distance that a late closer has the best chance but it's often a situation where a horse is up close and allowed to run along slowly and doesn't come back to them.

[CSC]

Mike Smith rode a good race today, the main thing is his ride didn’t cost Mine that Bird the race. But to be accurate it wasn’t a great ride either. Anyone that looked deeper into the race by watching the replay, Mine That Bird had to check or atleast wait on heels when Smith split horses at the top of the stretch causing him to lose a bit of momentum, if he hadn’t RA would have probably still won but by a diminishing length, the result would have been much closer. To me the story of the race was John Velazquez riding to place in the race rather than trying to win it, he certainly wasn’t in a hurry today despite the honest fractions, a very safe ride I would term it, Big Drama pushed Rachel Alexandra but certainly didn’t break her.

Originally Posted by CSC

To me the story of the race was John Velazquez riding to place in the race rather than trying to win it, he certainly wasn’t in a hurry today despite the honest fractions, a very safe ride I would term it, Big Drama pushed Rachel Alexandra but certainly didn’t break her.

The replay is up on U-Tube and he is at least 3 off the rail
sweeping the leaders out wide. Pretty ridiculous.
Maybe he just got pissed cause the horse reared
on him in the gate. Anyways, a destructive ride.

[CSC]

Originally Posted by pgardn

The replay is up on U-Tube and he is at least 3 off the rail
sweeping the leaders out wide. Pretty ridiculous.
Maybe he just got pissed cause the horse reared
on him in the gate. Anyways, a destructive ride.

Could be, however the 3 wide is immaterial to me, let's just say JV will never be miscontrued for Jerry Bailey on Eddington. The only way Big Drama could win this race was to play catch me if you can, watching JV's arms for the first half it was obvious he wasn't going for it.

[ddthetide]

i tip my hat to MTB ! he beat me again. i figured he'a run a nice race but would be off the board. congrats to MTB and connections, he's a very NICE horse.

congrats to Musket Man also. he looks to be the consistant horse that will show up for every race.

RA is a freak, what else can you say.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

i tip my hat to MTB ! he beat me again. i figured he'a run a nice race but would be off the board. congrats to MTB and connections, he's a very NICE horse.

congrats to Musket Man also. he looks to be the consistant horse that will show up for every race.

RA is a freak, what else can you say.

I agree, but thought he looked like a drunken sailor weaving down the stretch - hope he came out of the race okay, just tired.

[Revidere]

Originally Posted by pgardn

The replay is up on U-Tube and he is at least 3 off the rail
sweeping the leaders out wide. Pretty ridiculous.
Maybe he just got pissed cause the horse reared
on him in the gate. Anyways, a destructive ride.

Right. It couldn't be that the horse he was on was skittish in the gate, stumbled at the start and maybe, just maybe was trying to get out.

Just saying, maybe.

Originally Posted by Revidere

Right. It couldn't be that the horse he was on was skittish in the gate, stumbled at the start and maybe, just maybe was trying to get out.

Just saying, maybe.

He was all of those things.

So this means he wanted no part of the rail...
Was he trying to leave the track from the one hole
for a good part of the race
and JV merely kept him on the track.

I guess so...

[packerbacker7964]

Bob Baffert said it himself he needs to get POTN back to Cali to race on the Waxy stuff. There's lots of money to be made out West for the horse.

[Handicappy]

Originally Posted by pgardn

I wanted to say this.

Unless Baffert brings in a facsimile of Bob and John like he did in 2006.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Mine That Bird certainly got a great pace setup ... but he made an excellent account of himself for sure.

Looks like the tactic of having him jog and loaf through the very early stages has moved him up big time. Obviously.

I'm curious to see how he runs in the Belmont when you can't loaf away the early stages of the race and expect them to come back to you because the pace is often much slower. ... baring the entry of any speed sprinter types like High Finance or baring the entry of a dominant speed router like a Smarty Jones who was forced to brush off an insanely premature middle move from a Malibu winner.

To me RA is a dominant speed router - and I like MTB's Belmont chances better if she runs .. they won't let her have a Da Tara jog on an uncontested lead trip obviously.

Even though I thought RA was a cinch today .. I got burnt because I played against MTB underneath .. and I will eagerly play against him in the Belmont again if RA doesn't run.

RA saw real pace pressure today from a very good and very fresh speed horse coming off of a razor sharp win. Look at the horses who were also wide into the 1st turn and not far behind her ... I believe they were Friesan Fire, POTN, and General Quarters ... all of them were exhusted and beaten by a country mile.

yes, she did. her performance was outstanding.