IMO.....
When he was fresh he was also typically spotted against statebreds or weak allowance types that couldn\'t put him under any pressure early. That allowed him to set a comfortable pace. That kind of easy trip in turn allowed him to run his maximum possible figure.
When he won the Grade 1 Whitney, he was loose on the lead on a day that I (and many others) made one of the most biased days of that Saratoga meet.
No doubt he has turned in a number of poor performances because of his soundness issues, but his race in the Tom Fool last year wasn\'t bad (2nd off a layoff). He dueled on a hot pace while wide before weakening, in an effort that was better than it looks given the much tougher trip.
He went into the BC last year off a layoff yet didn\'t do much against the fastest horses (granted the track could also be an excuse).
I think he\'s one of those speed types that does his best running when he\'s able to control the pace or going easy. That kind of trip simply doesn\'t happen too often in Grade 1 races.
Personally, I thought his last race was pretty good. I didn\'t see a figure for the race, but he didn\'t make a very easy lead and still finished well. It was against seconds stringers, but he showed some grit in that race and the horses weren\'t statebreds. LOL
I think it\'s a form of denial to not acknowledge that some of the fluctuations in his figures are related to getting very easy trips against very weak horses and getting tougher trips against other quality speeds. IMO, he\'s not as good as his best figures, but he\'s better than some of his bad performances that were impacted by soundness issues.
