Lecomte

[ajkreider]

Don\'t quite know what to make of the winner.  Like that he handled trouble on the first turn and traffic in the lane.  Clearly best, and time stacks up well against the older decent allowance horses, and the fillies.

Pedigree looks like middle distance though.  Saved ground and horses were winning from way off the pace all day.  

First impressions are that this one and the Jerome winner make it to Churchill, as non-factors.

[jp702006]

I was actually impressed with the winner. Trainer seems to think he will get better with more distance. I am more interested in the Pletcher horse. He was sitting a good trip and then seemed to stop running on the turn. After getting passed by a few horses, he seemed to get involved again once straightened out in the lane. Maybe he is still somewhat green?

[Tavasco]

FWIW - regarding the odd trip of the Pletcher horse. I have followed several horses who have throttled down on the last turn dropped out of contention and then came again in the stretch

The last of which was Tiz Shea D who ended up winning the Grade 2 $500K Indiana Derby in the wet vs a lackluster group a few races later. Yet, I now regard the pattern as negative.

I am more inclined to think that a horse which exhibits this behavior simply can\'t maintain the pace at a critical stage of the race. Those that can go include one or more that are spent and get re-passed by the one paced subject horse.

None of my small sample was a Pletcher trainee. Only Tiz Shea D was a stakes horse. One started at Oaklawn and like the others never produced a winning result without dropping to lesser competition. Switching to turf proved no solution.

While visually the trip looks confused and we want to find talent where others don\'t I suggest objectivity. There is an exception to every generalization and the good news is you\'ll probably get a generous price compared to your optimistic view. So good luck.