Jimbo,
The shocking thing to me was the soft fractions QR set and then not opening up at the head of the stretch. I felt going in that even spotting the weight QR would handle Blame by 4-5 lengths. I don\'t do the TG numbers on my own, but its probable Blame ran his typical race and QR obviously wasn\'t on top of his game.
Maybe his old foot problem flared up during the race, or he may have put more into an earlier race than we thought.
But, trust me jimbo, QR is a horse who senses a confident rival. I still remember when he stuck his tail between his legs when he caught a look at Zenyatta last year prior to the Classic, that\'s when he started to mail it in mentally that day. Zenyatta, the times I\'ve seen her, will stare them down, stop right in front of them, intimidate them, etc, she is a bully with a huge ego. She also has a trememdous will to win and it will take a poor trip or a great racehorse to beat her when the $ 5M is on the line at Churchill. But, she\'s 6...
No one can argue that QR is about unbeatable at a mile or 8.5 furlongs, at 9f with the right type of pace attendance, I think he\'s very beatable as long as there is a legitimate closer who will continue to run the last 1/8th or so.
And I do agree with you that Blame is a real nice horse, but not a monster. I think there are 2 or 3 horses from the West coast that will handle him at 9f or 10 furlongs. Could be wrong...
One thing I\'ve learned about the really GOOD California horses, they seem to have a lot of gas in the tank come stretch time, I know those surfaces really build the stamina foundation and they\'re constantly working on \"different\" types of strips during the racing year so they keep having different type \"training\" methods thrust upon them. When the great ones adapt to that, they can really scoot in the late stages of races. Its like they are continually training their muscles to react to different type stresses depending on what type of synthetic they\'re training on. The old saying, \"muscles are stupid, they do what you train them to do\" always applies with the real talented synthetic runners. I spose its almost like they are cross-training all year long and then they go to a natural surface of turf or real dirt and adapt immediately. Its possible the smaller, intrinsic muscles in the rear, the upper legs and chest area are just really developed because the surface\'s seem to work these horses a little different than the conventional dirt does.
I was disappointed QR lost yesterday because I really wanted Z to have a chance to eyeball him again in the paddock before the Classic, when she may have been the underdog.
One other point and then I\'ll leave this alone. With Rachel, I really don\'t think her connections want to try the Classic at 10f. The problem is then Life at Ten and Devil May Care in the Distaff, that\'s no cup of tea either, right?
If QR makes the Classic, if there\'s not enough quality early speed in there to really make him work, he becomes a \"threat\" to win it. If 3-4 top notch speed horses that can carry their speed for 8.5 or 9 furlongs show up, he\'ll have his work cut out. Again, I could be wrong.
Have a good one
