We Were Pretty Lucky Today

[Silver Charm]

Big Brown didn\'t run today so nobody else out there cares about watching great horses. Right?

We were pretty lucky today to see Commentator and Indian Blessing run. Two for the ages. The later could have been a Very Subtle of her day if there was no filly division in the BC. The former may need to go west and take his shot. Pretty big pot to pass up.

Could be another Saint Liam/Big Brown vs Commentator on the front end out there. At least there is no bad blood between the respective trainers.

Zito and Baffert deserve a lot of credit for the outstanding jobs they have done with both these horses.

If the Press wants to call Big Brown one of the greatest of all-time well I can play this game too. Commentator is the best gelding I have ever seen. I don\'t go back to the Forego\'s or Kelso\'s so this guy sits at the top. Indian Blessing is the fastest sprinting filly since Very Subtle and may be more than a sprinter if they want to stretch back out again.

Enjoy these two. It may be a couple of decades again before you see another pair like\'em.............

[Silver Charm]

Excuse me I forgot about John Henry.

I need to run stairs for a day.

[P-Dub]

Silver Charm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Big Brown didn\'t run today so nobody else out
> there cares about watching great horses. Right?

Can you please give this a rest??  Honestly, you repeat yourself ad nauseum. We know how you feel, its impossible not to when you write this stuff every other day. Enough already.

[imallin]

Lava Man

[jimbo66]

Silver,

Your endless Big Brown bashing aside, the other part of your post is true.  For those of us that are \"figure based\" assessers of horses, Indian Blessing and Commentator are very very special.

I personally have had very little luck betting with or against Commentator, but objectively speaking, one can make a case he is the fastest horse of all time, period.  I know that sounds a bit crazy, but all those negative 5\'s are pretty imposing.  Ghostzapper ran 2 negative 6\'s, so on his best he was slightly faster, but Commentator reached that stratosphere more often.  I would love for Commentator to run in the Breeders Cup Classic and I suspect that the connections will oblige, if he is feeling.  Unfortunately, the race will be on synthetic, but I won\'t go there.

Indian Blessing has also reached awfully fast figures, amazingly so, for a 3 year old filly.  As much I do like the additional breeders cup races, I would love to see this filly try the best colts sprinting, which would have happened in the old days.  Fillies sprinting against colts was one of my favorite bets, Safely Kept and Meafara a couple times each in the breeders cup,did well, plus very subtle.

[P-Dub]

Jimbo,

Don\'t forget Soviet Problem, who just got nailed by Cherokee Run at the wire.

[Frost King]

What about Honest Lady, Xtra Heat and One Dreamer! Cashed them all!

[richiebee]

Absolutely agree P-Dub.

Not only are 1/9 favorites who dominate overmatched foes not going to bring any
new blood to the game, they are going to drive some of the old timers like
myself away.

Silver-- instead of writing flowery posts praising watered down racing and
overhyped \"superstars\", why not take some time to review Forego\'s
accomplishments. Forego was a sore horse who often gave major weight to his
opponents,none of which prevented him from being Champion Sprinter in \'74,
Champion Older Male in \'74,\'75,\'76 and \'77, and Horse of the Year in \'74, \'75,
and \'76.

Lava Man and Commentator, nice horses, they do not belong in the same thread as
Forego, sorry.

I will agree that Zito has done a good job with Commentator, and it was
especially masterful using the horse slaughter issue as a reason for going to
the Mass Cap, thereby avoiding a showdown with Curlin next Saturday.

[P-Dub]

Good for you.

We were talking about sprinters.  One Dreamer won the Distaff.

[Silver Charm]

You guys are \"Brain Dead\" particularly you Pee-Stub.

It is ok to compare Big Brown to the Forego\'s of their day but nobopdy else around.

Who drew that line?

Commentator toyed with two fields Big Brown was ALL OUT against.

I propose a match race in Dec at CD between Commentator and Big Brown.

Tricky vs Nicky

SPECTRE vs Blue Blood

Now that is ratings grabber......

[fkach]

SC,

I think these comparisons get silly unless you specify the conditions.

How do you think Commentator is going to make out in the Classic when he either tries to outsprint or is forced to stalk and move past another legitimate Grade 1 speed horse that won\'t spit the bit so easily?

I think you\'ll see an outcome similar to the Met or worse depending on several things.

Commentator runs huge figures when he\'s not hurting and gets an easy trip on the front end, but he only tends to get those trips in weak spots.  

IMO, BB is still pretty much an enigma because it\'s very hard to know where his form is heading or how to evaluate his turf race. If you know please tell me. :-)

In a match race with BB, I\'d take Commentator. But in the Classic with other quality speeds in the race, I think BB has an excellent chance of finishing ahead of him if he rates a bit, even if he also loses.

[richiebee]

Silver--

One other point, and to me it is evidence of one of Racing\'s biggest problems.

What do Commentator, Indian Blessing and Midnight Lute all have in common,
besides being brilliantly fast runners who have hung up huge TG #s?

Answer-- none of them, for all of their brilliance, really have gotten much
recognition from what I will call (for lack of a better word) the mainstream.

Smarty, Funny, Barbaro, BB and Eight Belles (for the wrong reason)all recent
runners who attracted attention and caused a buzz outside of Racing.The buzz was
a result of their participation in the Kentucky Derby

My point is that there is too much emphasis on the Kentucky Derby. Racing has
done a bad job of making an \"Event\" out of the Breeders Cup series. I have said
in the past that on Breeders Cup Day(s), no other live racing should be held
anywhere in the US, an idea which was roundly rejected by almost everyone,
especially those of the \"there can never be enough races to bet on\" school of
thinking.

Horse Racing is like NASCAR racing in one way-- the signature event (in NASCAR
it is their race at Daytona, the first race of the year) is held early in the
season. That is the only comparison I will make between NASCAR (with their cult
following and brilliant marketing efforts) and Horse Racing (which has not been
marketed that well, if at all).

[Silver Charm]

\"Answer-- none of them, for all of their brilliance, really have not gotten much
recognition from what I will call (for lack of a better word) the mainstream.\"

Someone who finally gets it.

There are issues or obstacles. The mainstream is shrinking so battles for even a square inch of that space is difficult. However NASCAR was able to do it by building a big enough broad enough fan base that hands were forced to give it coverage or those eyebalss would go elsewhere. ESPN is a good place to start with a robust website and 19 different cable stations of their own.  

The link below is to the PP\'s of pretty damn good horse. Maybe even a truely great one. But he is not the only game in town and until some people wake up to that fact they will continue to do the sport more harm than good.

http://community.drf.com/formblog/files/BigBrownAdventcia.pdf

Flach I like you opinion on the Commentator/Big Brown match race. Don\'t you think Tricky would fit the role of Blofeld pretty good. Entering the paddock with a patch over his right eye standing next to \"Captain America\" Nick. As far as Big Browns condition goes why not just ask him. With all of the hype I\'m sure there are a couple of media types who are convinced he can also talk.

[fkach]

SC and Richie,

I don\'t think the average person has paid much attention to the best horses in racing other than the Triple Crown contenders and a handful of legendary geldings for several decades. There are some exceptions, but they are rare.

Saratoga did all they could to promote Curlin this summer (already well known), but from what I gather attendance was pretty disappointing.

The general public simply doesn\'t care about horses like Indian Blessing because it has no objective way of measuring how good she\'s been lately. That takes handicapping. That knowledge is what makes her of interest here.  

I think putting on great races would help. So would keeping horses around for long enough to actually generate a fan base. But I\'m not sure racing is ever going to be more than a niche business unless it generates many more serious handicapping/gambling fans. That\'s pretty difficult when betting it is generally a losing proposition for most.

[jimbo66]

Geez Fkach,

Maybe commentator will get \"compromised\" in the BC Classic, like you thought he would get compromised yesterday by the 54-1 shot.  Heck, he only won by 14.  If he wasn\'t so compromised, he would have won by 18 or 20.

Same post, same theme, different day.  Isn\'t there a \"pace board\" somewhere, where your theories about pace would be more appreciated?  

As fpr paying more attention to you, as you suggest, so I can learn something.  Hmmmm.  Well, I am  a believer that we learn every day of our lives, no matter how old or knowledgeable we may be, and I believe most people can learn SOMETHING from most other people.  But you REALLY put that statement to the test......

I guess I could learn from you how to find place pool overlays, where a horse pays 2.40 instead of 2.30.  If i want to learn that, I will call you......