'17 CROWN TRAIL THREAD: Always Dreaming; Cloud Computing; Tapwrit

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by pweizer

Other than Classic Empire at the start, what major trouble did horses have in this race? I really didn't see too many bad trips and would love some insight on things I may have missed.

Paul

Paul, I'm mostly going on what the race chart says. The chart comments took over an hour to show up. They even put up the 13th race before adding the Derby chart. I assume the comments were the result of multiple views of the race.

Here are the ones that I thought had at least some level of excuse: (the added bold emphasis is mine)

GIRVIN, bumped and in tight at the start, settled off the pace, moved up off the rail leaving the far turn, was checked sharply and bumped in traffic near the five-sixteenths then failed to seriously recover.

TAPWRIT was forced into tight quarters by IRISH WAR CRY at the break, steadied off heels in the opening furlong, gained while being brushed between foes near the five-sixteenths, altered to the fence in the lane and kept trying.

GUNNEVERA was jammed up at the break and bumped,regrouped to save ground early, angled back out nearing the backstretch, entered the far turn five wide, brushed with TAPWRIT past the five sixteenths, came sixwide for the drive, was floated out further in mid stretch then failed to seriously to sustain.

HENCE, in tight at the break, settled well back,steadied off heels leaving the five sixteenths, swung wide for the drive but failed to muster up the needed kick.

MCCRAKEN was jostled hard soon after the break, recovered and settled four wide, gained quickly when put to pressure leaving the half
milemarker, continued on into the lane, was bumped and carried out in mid stretch then came up empty.

PATCH chased off the rail, edged up between rivals leaving the far turn, was checked and bounced around with GIRVIN near the five sixteenths causing him to lose any chance and came up empty.

IRAP was bumped when a victim of the melee soon after the break, regrouped to chase three and four wide, steadied near the five sixteenths and weakened.

A lot of this is pretty much inevitable in a 20-horse stampede. I don't think any of these trips made it impossible for a superior horse to win. And all of these horses finished 10 or more lengths behind Always Dreaming. But adding these trips to dealing with the barrage of mud in the face that all besides the front runners had to deal with, plus the fact that some of them were probably uncomfortable running on that surface, there's plenty of room IMO for some of these horses to look substantially better next time out.