Yes, I think coming from altitude helped a little, but it\'s measurable. That effect lasts for about a week, I don\'t know when the horse got into Churchill. the trainer said he did stop and gallop him in Texas on the way here.
The track was floated (not sealed) right before the Derby, and even the NBC guys were talking about how firm and fast that makes the track. They were talking about it relating to breakdowns.
Watching the race, the hardness of the absolute rail path (right up snug against it) is seen on the far turn, when the 5 horse made a huge acceleration move for several strides on the rail (then left it!). Go back and watch that.
Borel talked in detail about how this ride happened, and it was pretty clear to me that he knows it was a perfect storm. But he\'s a smart enough jock to recognize it happening and he acted on it.
Not to mention he\'s a true Cajun rider, gutsy and half-crazy when he has to be.
He said (paraphrasing) on the interview during the ride back: \"Mr. Nafzgar taught me to ride the rail, he taught me to be patient on these baby 3-year-olds, they only have one run\"
At the press conference he said (paraphrasing):
The plan was to go out and lay off the pace, but when his horse got slammed and bumped and squeezed back at the start, he just cut over to the rail and lay back.
His horse cruised through a lazy gallop at the back with no kickback, while everyone else was up running fast and tiring in the mud.
He said he figured that he could go wide and close to get a placement (someone mentioned this here already) but he had the rail so clucked the horse on, and it really responded - and he kept going, and the horse kept coming, so he just went for it.
He acknowledged his horse was physically little, so that let him \"float over the track, rather than sink in\" - that\'s a known thing (smaller horses usually do okay in the mud) - and the little horse was quick on his feet and squeezed through that tiny hole on the rail. He sounded surprised the little horse kept coming, too.
Borel did shake his whip back at the three jocks struggling in the center of the track, laughing.
After doing a bit of the same on Rachel yesterday (pointing to the horse, celebrating before the wire), I wonder if the stewards talked to him - but the crowd loved it!
So yeah, I, too, looked for Giacamo\'s and didn\'t find this one, but I can buy that this was the luckiest day of that little horse\'s life - and his trainers, owners, etc. They owe Borel big time. He rode that little horse like he was in a bullring - Borel, after Friday, was in the zone, just being gutsy and having a ball this weekend. Best weekend of that jocks life.
