Interesting character to bring up on the question of sporty spotting. When he had the predominant horse, he was as wimpy as the rest of them. However, when Woody did not have the predominant horse, he was not afraid to take chances. However, he also knew when he was beat and not afraid to take a pretty dang good horse to the lesser races. Among others inspiring this comment are -- Devil\'s Bag (about the wimpy handling of whom Joe Hirsch took Woody to task on (people noted it when Hirsch died recently)), and Smarten (a pretty good three year old who could have brought home checks in the triple crown behind Spectacular Bid, but Woody knew he could not contend with the big horse and there was a lot of money out on the road for a good three year old). As to Conquistador Cielo, my perception is that he was behind the 3 year old leaders (Gato Del Sol and Aloma\'s Ruler) and Woody felt he was playing catch up when he brought him back to the Belmont. My recollection in those days was that you had to win at the distance to be the 3 yo champ and no matter how impressive a Met Mile win for a three year old is, it ain\'t going to get you there with other horses winning at classic distances. One interesting side note -- Woody was bringing CC back from an injury and he ran him in an allowance at Pimilico before the Met Mile (I do not remember if it was Preakness Day or close to Preakness Day), but my point is he did not have a lot of rest going into the Met Mile to start as it came pretty quick after his strange prep for the race. The spacing that horse must have gone through from May to August is just unheard of these days -- but Woody probably knew his time was limited and he had to do as much as he could in the limited time to get up.
