Quality Road

[martoon]

What do you guys think about Quality Road?  I\'m leaning to tossing him.  A couple things.  First the timing of his stud plans at Lanes End seems suspect. Think they might be trying to grab a news headline now as they fear there might not be a headline for him after the race.  Also... the recent article on how they are training him to try to get the mile and a quarter I think shows he\'s obviously not a natural for the distance. Third I didn\'t like how his stride looked in the last 8th of his last race.  I really really love this horse.  But not for this trip.  Are you guys hearing anything more encouraging?

[Millennium3]

Solid point. He had two tries at 10 furlongs last year in Grade 1 Company: The Travers and The Jockey Club Gold Cup. Both were run over sloppy tracks. In the former he basically had an inside trip throughout with dead aim at the head of the stretch, but got run over by both Summer Bird & Hold Me Back. In the latter race he took over after a slow early quarter, led through the same moderate pace, and still couldn\'t contain Summer Bird. It\'s not that it\'s impossible for him in the Classic this time, but you have to figure if there is any horse capable of staying the trip even slightly better, that will be enough to get by Quality Road at this distance. I\'d like his chances a lot better if this was at 9 furlongs instead of ten.

[miff]

Doubt a horse can be trained to get a distance that is beyond his limitations, AND run near his best. QR had huge figs earlier but looks vulnerable off his last two races.

That they are now training QR for stamina is a huge knock,imo.


Mike

[Silver Charm]

Also how they trained him.

A recent 4F work with a strong 3F gallop out! WTF is that?

If you want to put 7F in him shouldn\'t it be the other way around? With a longer than normal break between races here a 7F work in like 1:24 would not have been all that bad.

Pletchers never been a \"feel\" trainer but a \"by the book\" or what \"the chart\" said he should do.

I\'m not buying this either.....

[Silver Charm]

Worked 6F in 1:13 and change this morning. Very ordinary for a horse with this kind of speed.

I know Pletcher doesn\'t push his horses like say Bob Baffert does in the morning but a series of modest breezes is puzzling.

Also Blame is working at Keeneland. He trained there after Saratoga then went back to NY for the Jockey Club.

both Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss spoke highly of Blame yesterday on the telecast. Bailey also said Zenyatta was better on dirt!

Hmmmmmmm.......

[Dana666]

Wow, an analyst on a horse racing TV network who actually knows something. . .shocking! Can\'t be TVG!

[Silver Charm]

They did a good job.

Bailey said he wasn\'t impressed with Lookin at Lucky\'s last race and when Moss touted QR\'s Donn win Bailey said \"when was that, like five years ago?\"

I thought I heard him say Gio Ponte is going in the Classic and jeannine Edwards scooped that Proviso is going in the Mile. She will be tough in a tough race!

Ken Rudolph said \"did I tell you I picked Giacomo\"......

[Flighted Iron]

Silver,

 Did Bailey happen to say why he thinks Z is better on dirt?

[covelj70]

Silver, this Ken Rudolph line from you is an absolute classic.

That\'s a running joke in our house, he just picks whoever Mike Smith is on in EVERY race he analyzes and he goes from there.

[ajkreider]

Tossing him from the win may be a good idea, but I don\'t like tossing him from the exotics.  Throwing out a horse who has never been off the board, including at this distance in G1 company, sounds like a way to lose money.   I know because I continue to do it.