Please make the Man o War the ROTW

[Silver Charm]

Hey Baseball purist.

Did you see the most Unbreakable Records show last night? Cal Ripken consecutive games at number #1?

Ricky Henderson 1,400 Total Stolen Bases and 130 in one years doesn\'t make the Final Top Five?

You think the Votes were base on who was nice guy and who was not?

[fkach]

>This is One Bad Favorite we should all be rooting for.<

Are we sure he\'s a bad favorite?

Don\'t we need to see the price first.  ;-)

If this was a dirt race, IMO he\'d be a legitimate 1-5 shot. Almost the entire risk comes from the fact that he\'s making his first start on turf. We aren\'t the only ones that know that. Everyone knows it. The odds will reflect it to at least some degree. The key is evaluting what the risk is so we know if the public is underrating it.

Personal experience suggests to me that most \"first time turf\" horses that WIN tend to accomplish that at the lower levels of racing (maiden races, limited ALW races etc...). The public does seem to overbet the stakes quality dirt horses that try. However, I think it\'s pretty rare for a stakes caliber dirt horse to come into a race looking this superior, having a pedigree that suggests he\'ll like it, and also having a work over the surface that looked like he handled it just fine.

I don\'t know what the fair price is any more than anyone else, but I suspect it\'s only a few ticks above that 1-5.

If I were tempted to play against him, I would be more inclined to leave him out totally because he\'s probably more of an \"all or nothing\" horse than the typical favorite.

In the mean time, I\'ll be rooting for him too. He\'s a great horse and I\'d like to see him enhance that greatness.

[Michael D.]

Curlin gets stamina from the outstanding turf router TV Lark, and there\'s nothing wrong with Smart Strike on top. firm turf might make the surface switch less of an issue. only knock is the low odds trying something for the 1st time.

I\'m going to have Grand Couturier as the key here at the ml of 10-1. willing to forgive the \'7\' last in the slow paced prep. don\'t expect a return to the \'0.5\' lvl, but with a 1w/1w trip (Calvin\'s up), GC might only need to improve a few lengths on the run in this race last year, which was compromised a bit by the pace.

[basket777]

there are many woman who think cal is a nice guy.

at least at first  ask kelly gear

[jma11473]

Wouldn\'t the argument there be that the style of baseball has changed, so the chances of someone being asked to steal that many bases in a season is slim? I mean, obviously there are still guys athletic enough to steal 100 bases in a year, but with so many home runs being hit now (though the totals are down this year) the wait-for-the-home-run strategy means the attempts won\'t be made. Still, it\'s humanly possible for someone to steal a lot of bases. Most guys have no interest in trying to play every game the way Ripken did, plus are likely not physically capable of it, so there\'s zero chance in that record being broken.

Oh, and it\'s okay to root against Curlin if someone wants to, but it would be a better story for racing if he won.

[Silver Charm]

If this were a beauty contest, at least from the looks of the post parade, Curlin looks like one of the all time greats.

Now they need to run the race.

[xichibanx]

I often wonder if Robby Albarado thinks the rail will jump out and bite him if he gets near it?

[alm]

Yeah, what\'s the point, indeed.  Curlin did in fact gallop, in fact gallop is mostly what he did.

Stick to the dirt guys...he ain\'t no Secretariat.

[Silver Charm]

The better horse on this day won. This was no disgrace for Curlin.

Frankels horse did not get beat by much despite having run through some wicked fractions.

Good for these guys to try it. What they do now is another story. Certainly with the BC being on Synthetic.

[miff]

Curlin may get the best fig but his lack of \"quick\" cost him as it did in the Belmont.Very ordinary performance off of a perfect pace set up in front of him. How good was Sudan?

Curlin will get embarrassed if he trys the \"froggies\" in the Arc, doubt he goes.Interesting that this may be some indication of how he will perform on synth if he goes to the BC.


Mike

[xichibanx]

Agreed.  This is very selfish as I have hotel and plane reservations but I am hoping Curlin supplements to the Arlington Million to try the Euro invaders there.

[Silver Charm]

According to the owner he might still keep going on Turf.

Dirt is a \"nothing left to prove\" proposition.

I salute the guy if Curlin can improve next time out he would be recognized for what is.

A special horse

[fkach]

>Curlin may get the best fig but his lack of \"quick\" cost him as it did in the Belmont<

That does seem to be his one slight flaw. He doesn\'t seem to have that top notch acceleration that some of the best horses have. That ability is often an asset on turf where the best horses often finish really fast.

I thought it was a good effort though.

He got out of the gate poorly. Even though the very early part of the race was fast, it slowed a bit afterwards and they still came home well.  Red Rocks had a good jump on him while getting a perfect trip. Given that the BC is on synth, I don\'t see any reason they can\'t give him one more shot to win a Grade 1 on turf if that would enhance his value in some way.

[miff]

Fkach,

Only the truly fastest possess that freak like acceleration with staying power. Curlin has never had it and at this point probably never will. He\'s a very serious horse with lofty figs, he\'s just not really race track fast like the great ones.

Mike

[Michael D.]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Curlin may get the best fig but his lack of
> \"quick\" cost him as it did in the Belmont.Very
> ordinary performance off of a perfect pace set up
> in front of him. How good was Sudan?
>
> Curlin will get embarrassed if he trys the
> \"froggies\" in the Arc, doubt he goes.Interesting
> that this may be some indication of how he will
> perform on synth if he goes to the BC.
>
>
> Mike


Mike,

good article from Haskin on the \"quick\" factor.

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2008/07/14/Curlin-Revisited.aspx