Jerry Brown's letter to TDN on HOY discussion

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

So what happened to the second and third place finishers of the woodward in this race?

What happened to Holy Bull in the Fountain of Youth? What happened to Afleet Alex in the Rebel? What happened to Point Given in the Derby?

Horses come in and out of form. They don't always show their best every time out. Why does a horse's previous races become moot just because its latest was below par?

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

What happened to Holy Bull in the Fountain of Youth? What happened to Afleet Alex in the Rebel? What happened to Point Given in the Derby?

Horses come in and out of form. They don't always show their best every time out. Why does a horse's previous races become moot just because its latest was below par?

If we were talking about just ONE horse it would be one thing but we are talking about two. Were they both simply off form?

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

If we were talking about just ONE horse it would be one thing but we are talking about two. Were they both simply off form?

Didn't Bullsbay battle a foot abscess (after stepping on a shard of metal) leading up to the BC Mile? He ran horrible there, yet had previous synthetic form (albeit not at the top level). Why would he necessarily turn it around when shipped back and wheeled back in the Clark?

Didn't Macho Again bow out of the BC Classic with a cough? Didn't he miss a couple of works the previous month?

Does any of this suggest they would bring their A-games to the race?

Not to mention, they've both been running since last winter without much of a breather.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Didn't Bullsbay battle a foot abscess (after stepping on a shard of metal) leading up to the BC Mile? He ran horrible there, yet had previous synthetic form (albeit not at the top level). Why would he necessarily turn it around when shipped back and wheeled back in the Clark?

Didn't Macho Again bow out of the BC Classic with a cough? Didn't he miss a couple of works the previous month?

Does any of this suggest they would bring their A-games to the race?

Not to mention, they've both been running since last winter without much of a breather.

I was not aware that either was battling issues. If that is indeed the case, it would be plausible that they looked worse yesterday than they had earlier in the year.

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

If we were talking about just ONE horse it would be one thing but we are talking about two. Were they both simply off form?

Well they weren't the only two horses that have lost form. They're simply the two people are determined to argue about at this moment. I'm sure if we did a roll call we'd find a few hundred others at least that went off form since September. None of whom faced RA or Zenyatta but just to illustrate the point that sure, shocking as it is, two horses might be off form at the same time. You could say Einstein is too. Curlin was last year. Not everybody is a freaky end-of-yearer like Conduit. Some get injured at the same time. How dare Macho Again not ask Bullsbay for permission before he had a problem. Everybody knows you take turns.

[herkhorse]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

What happened to Holy Bull in the Fountain of Youth? What happened to Afleet Alex in the Rebel? What happened to Point Given in the Derby?

Horses come in and out of form. They don't always show their best every time out. Why does a horse's previous races become moot just because its latest was below par?