Romans benched a week for NY bute positive

[Calzone Lord]

Romans won the award for best put-over in 2011 with Sassy Image.




Sassy Image should have been about 500/1 odds on the Kentucky Derby day undercard in the Humana Distaff. She opened at like 9/1 and went off 16/1 on the biggest betting day of the year.

She had some corrective throat surgery during the layoff before the Humana Distaff...and was being bet heavily into the wildly superior Hilda's Passion.

Whoever the vet was who did her surgery should have got an eclipse.

Romans winning the Breeders Cup Mile with Court Vision over Goldikova and Gio Ponti at Churchill later in the year was like a perfectly logical outcome compared to that pig Sassy Image being transformed into the top female sprinter in the land overnight.

[asudevil]

Good work, Doug. Classic!

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

the horse got gout from him..then cured it..

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Romans won the award for best put-over in 2011 with Sassy Image.

Sassy Image should have been about 500/1 odds on the Kentucky Derby day undercard in the Humana Distaff. She opened at like 9/1 and went off 16/1 on the biggest betting day of the year.

She had some corrective throat surgery during the layoff before the Humana Distaff...and was being bet heavily into the wildly superior Hilda's Passion.

Whoever the vet was who did her surgery should have got an eclipse.

Romans winning the Breeders Cup Mile with Court Vision over Goldikova and Gio Ponti at Churchill later in the year was like a perfectly logical outcome compared to that pig Sassy Image being transformed into the top female sprinter in the land overnight.

I think you're dressing it up a little too much as a miracle. Isn't Sassy Image like 5 for 6 at Churchill Downs? She was a multiple graded stakes winner at 2. She is a multiple stakes winning router, which often is an advantage on the cutback to 7f. If one could justify drawing a line through the Sabin (not sure if the breathing issue was reported before the race), then she certainly wasn't impossible. Having missed the vast majority of her 3yo season you would have had to also ignore her Beyer numbers. The allowance comeback would have supported the assumption that she progressed from 2 to 3 (to 4) the same way a normal stakes-caliber horse would.

You would have had to have faith to bet her, but you certainly didn't need divine intervention.

[blackthroatedwind]

Sassy's Image was the only horse Dale ran that weekend that he didn't even particularly like.

Some putover.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Sassy's Image was the only horse Dale ran that weekend that he didn't even particularly like.

Some putover.

Who was betting her if that's the case?

She opened up second choice in the betting in a race where she looked pathetic on paper.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Who was betting her if that's the case?

She opened up second choice in the betting in a race where she looked pathetic on paper.

Wow, she opened up second choice when 5% of the pool was in. Call the FBI.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

I think you're dressing it up a little too much as a miracle. Isn't Sassy Image like 5 for 6 at Churchill Downs? She was a multiple graded stakes winner at 2. She is a multiple stakes winning router, which often is an advantage on the cutback to 7f. If one could justify drawing a line through the Sabin (not sure if the breathing issue was reported before the race), then she certainly wasn't impossible. Having missed the vast majority of her 3yo season you would have had to also ignore her Beyer numbers. The allowance comeback would have supported the assumption that she progressed from 2 to 3 (to 4) the same way a normal stakes-caliber horse would.

You would have had to have faith to bet her, but you certainly didn't need divine intervention.

Sassy Image was a complete and utter bum before her magic form reversal in the Humana Distaff.

One of the luckiest breaks I got all year is that I did not bring my Internet card with my laptop to the track that day ... because I would have lost every dollar betting against Sassy Image in the betting exchange that day ... and probably tossed my laptop across the clubhouse.

I remember someone came over to me after that race and told me they bet on Sassy Image and showed me a ticket and I was mad enough to choke them.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Sassy Image was a complete and utter bum before her magic form reversal in the Humana Distaff. Hilda's Passion just beat her by half a pole and the rest of the horses in that race where all better than her.

One of the luckiest breaks I got all year is that I did not bring my Internet card with my laptop to the track that day ... because I would have lost every dollar betting against Sassy Image in the betting exchange that day ... and probably tossed my laptop across the clubhouse.

I remember someone came over to me after that race and told me they bet on Sassy Image and showed me a ticket and I was mad enough to choke them.

I made a huge bet on her in her previous start against Hilda's Passion. She was MUCH better than you are pretending.

By the way, was Hilda's Passion a bit of a form reversal....or does she get a pass from you as it might interupt your little story?

[Calzone Lord]

Whatever.

She sucked until her throat surgery...there was no published reports of her throat surgery...she was bet... and she did make a gigantic form reversal. Those are all facts.

You're friends with Romans and his son, cool. I shouldn't have said "putover" I suppose. I'm sure Romans proabably wasn't the one betting her because Court Vision had a better chance going into the Mile on paper.

[Rootdog1]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Whatever.

She sucked until her throat surgery...there was no published reports of her throat surgery...she was bet... and she did make a gigantic form reversal. Those are all facts.

You're friends with Romans and his son, cool. I shouldn't have said "putover" I suppose. I'm sure Romans proabably wasn't the one betting her because Court Vision had a better chance going into the Mile on paper.

What he says is true. Romans was not super high on Sassy THAT day. He did say she was much better after the procedure. I hit the pk4 breeders cup because he said the old man would run big in the turf. He is not shy on giving his opinion. He is not always correct, as he missed on Shack yesterday. Dale is one of the good guys.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Whatever.

She sucked until her throat surgery...there was no published reports of her throat surgery...she was bet... and she did make a gigantic form reversal. Those are all facts.

You're friends with Romans and his son, cool. I shouldn't have said "putover" I suppose. I'm sure Romans proabably wasn't the one betting her because Court Vision had a better chance going into the Mile on paper.

This is pathetic.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

This is pathetic.

I'm glad you think so.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Sassy Image was a complete and utter bum before her magic form reversal in the Humana Distaff.

How do you know? She had made all of 2 starts in the previous 15 months.

One of the luckiest breaks I got all year is that I did not bring my Internet card with my laptop to the track that day ... because I would have lost every dollar betting against Sassy Image in the betting exchange that day ... and probably tossed my laptop across the clubhouse.

I remember someone came over to me after that race and told me they bet on Sassy Image and showed me a ticket and I was mad enough to choke them.

Seems to me like you're failing to recognize that in retrospect, Sassy Image made some sense in that race, at least as a contender. She won 2 subsequent stakes following that "miracle". She was injured in the Ballerina, just as she apparently was in the Sabin earlier in the year, and in the Davona Dale in 2010. Draw a line through all those races and how does her form look?

I'm not suggesting you or anyone else should have had her on race day, but with all the subsequent information, Sassy Image turned out to be a good example of the limitations of past performances. I wouldn't doubt there were some astute people at the track who took a gamble that she was better than the Sabin suggested.

Instead of pretending that Romans put one over on everyone, just admit that your handicap of the race was botched and bring a red pen along with your laptop next time.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Instead of pretending that Romans put one over on everyone, just admit that your handicap of the race was botched and bring a red pen along with your laptop next time.

Uh huh.

Her dirt form with Pletcher:




What Sassy Image looked like coming into this race....she stalked a pace that was slow on everyones pace figures and still backed up.




Amen Halliuja had just crushed Sassy's Image by double digit lengths in two of her last three races. Sassy's Image is shorter than her in the betting at one point in a race with a $2 million + plus WPS pool.

Tidal Pool (for the most overbet human connections possible at Churchill) is longer than SI at one point in the betting.




Evening Jewel was beaten a nose in the KY Oaks over the track and came into the race in good form. She's longer at one point.

But yeah. Sassy Image just made so much sense. She hadn't run a Beyer higher than 89 in her career... She hadn't won a race in a year and a half. She just got drowned by 14 lengths stalking a slow pace. How did she not figure to win this Grade 1 by open lengths?

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

What Sassy Image looked like coming into this race....she stalked a pace that was slow on everyones pace figures and still backed up.

You're being disingenuous here. We're supposed to be looking at this retrospectively. Obviously one would gather from the fucl<ing 11 month layoff between Feb '10 and Jan '11 that something was amiss with Sassy Image. Are you really taking the Davona Dale at face value?

As for the Sabin, even if we don't know about the wind issue, at the very least, the fact that she was sent to press the front end was atypical of all her previous starts (including her comeback just a month prior). One could suggest that the change of tactics completely backfired, and therefore the race could be tossed. The fact that she was entered in a Grade 1 off the Sabin strengthens that notion.

But yeah. Sassy Image just made so much sense. She hadn't run a Beyer higher than 89 in her career... She hadn't won a race in a year and a half. She just got drowned by 14 lengths stalking a slow pace. How did she not figure to win this Grade 1 by open lengths?

Again, you're being disingenuous. She hadn't won a race in a year because she hadn't run in a race in a fucl<ing year. You know that young horses mature, strengthen, progess, develop, etc. so who gives a sh!t about her 2yo Beyers? If she doesn't have races in her PPs that illustrate this progression then obviously one's hands are tied. But again, Romans saw fit to run her in a Grade 1 off 2 comeback races.

You simply don't want to read between the lines. Or maybe you're just not much handicapper right now.

Try some throat surgery.

[Calzone Lord]

Disingenuous?

You're right. I was being disingenuous all along.

I realized she was slow (everyone else in the fields last race was open lengths faster than her career top) and I realized she hadn't won a race in a year and a half...and I love horses who enter Grade 1's off of layoffs.

Didn't bother me at all... because I read between the lines.

This is a picture of the money I made from betting Sassy Image...I needed to carry it back in bags.



I laid some of it out on my bed...




Tiger Woods fist pump!




I threw a party that night where I invited no one but my laptops and it got out of hand.




Sassy Image!, baby!

Again. She sucked until her throat surgery...there was no published reports of her throat surgery...she was bet... and she did make a gigantic form reversal. Those are all facts. All that race did was sink me in multi-win bets where I singled the 2nd place. I can't say I'm not bitter about it ... but it is what it is.

[richard]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

I think you're dressing it up a little too much as a miracle. Isn't Sassy Image like 5 for 6 at Churchill Downs ?

You would have had to have faith to bet her, but you certainly didn't need divine intervention.

And she does well first off a layoff. The Humana fit that.

[cmorioles]

Longshots are always overbet on big days...Derby, BC...I guess that covers all the big days. Wasn't she the longest shot in the field?

[Calzone Lord]

By post time she was.

Tidal Pool was the second longest horse in the race at 13/1 for the always overbet combo (in flat wagers) of Calvin Borel and DWL.






Sassy Image certainly proved herself easily the best female dirt sprinter alive on this day ... after entering off of a layoff, not having won a race at any level in a year and a half, and never having run a Beyer higher than 89.

I don't think any female sprinter from the last few years had a chance with her on that day. I know multiple people have told me Romans bet her -- but that's not the point and I don't really care if he did. She took insider money that day, that much is obvious. She wasn't being bet on the strength of her recent form. She wasn't bet in most gimmicks in relation to how she was flat.