Gunnevara ran the big number back in February. Before the Florida Derby, I (and others) thought he was a bet against in the Florida Derby because he didn\'t need the points, might not be fully cranked and might regress a bit off the big number.
So when he lost the Florida Derby, it was no surprise to me. But as I posted at that time, the way he lost was a big concern. He didn\'t have a Monarchos type run where he ran well but came up a bit short. He showed zero run the entire race, barely going by a few distance challenged horses in very late stretch and never really being in the race. Some people defended the run because of the way the pace held up, but for me it was a HORRENDOUS race and there was no way you could play this horse in the Derby. Horses don\'t run big in the derby off of non-efforts in their prior races.
So, MAYBE Gunnevara moved forward a tiny bit in the Derby. I say \"maybe\" because there is at least a fair question as to whether TGJB has the derby a point or so fast, but even if the figure is exactly right, the tiny move forward doesn\'t seem like a portender of a return to his top, especially off of only 2 weeks of rest. Javier certainly doesn\'t think so. After calling this horse a derby winner in February, Castellano is abandoning ship pretty quickly for another longshot (who i think has a good shot).
The Florida Derby was a sign to \"stick a fork\" in Gunnevara in his current form cycle. Think he stays that way until maybe a freshening and summer campaign.
But hey, the price will be right, so can\'t fault anybody or trying. Personally, would rather take a similar price on horses \"on their way up\" and not \"over the top\". Conquest Mo Money and Cloud Computing seem to fit that bill for me. With Classic Empire being the horse to beat if you don\'t like the favorite.
Will be structuring my pick-4 and pick-5 tickets with 60% to CE and 20% each to Conquest Mo Money and Cloud Computing.
Good luck
Jim