First of all, whether or not it was a bad ride, Al Khali had a bad trip, which is what matters. That kind of thing happens when the pace is really slow-- everyone can keep up, they get stacked up, horses behind the pack either face ground loss or trouble. The random (luck) factor goes up exponentially in those situations. Rider\'s aggressiveness is rewarded.
Second-- in the Nearctic, a Euro won, the 4 I put up as a box ran 2-3-4-5, beating the other Euros. The filly that won was clearly a first lasix jump-up, since she was much slower in Europe than the other Euros, let alone the ones from here.
In the E. P. Taylor, only two were NOT from Europe. Miss Keller beat all but one of them.
In the International, as I said in ROTW, Al Khali was solid and Marsh Side probably wasn\'t going to run well. Those were the only ones with 2\'s or better, lots had around 3\'s. Once MS didn\'t run and Al Khali had all that trouble, anyone who could run around a 3 was a contender (and the winner, who was getting almost a point in weight,didn\'t even have to run that fast). Haven\'t done the figure yet, but the blanket finish would indicate the race went somewhere around a 3.
The only tip I can give you about first lasix is that horses who bleed often have erratic patterns, stop, hang, or are eased. The filly in the Nearctic had an eratic pattern, but even if you thought lasix would help it would be tough to give her a 5 point new top (around what she ran) in part because so few fillies run that fast. There are some situations where the better you are the less likely you are to have the winner. Good bets lose all the time. (Well, not ALL).
