Tough Wood

[P-Dub]

Flighted Iron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Couples won\'t win and it has nothing to do with
> imagined golf gods. unless by golf gods they mean
> karma.
>
>
>
> For this game you need, above all things, to be in
> a tranquil frame of mind.
> - Harry Vardon


Brave prediction there.

Who cares, its still a great story to watch a man at this stage of his career compete on this stage.

I\'m sure you probably thought the same thing when Tom Watson was contending for the British Open last year.

Thanks for the positive energy this morning.

[Flighted Iron]

P-Dub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Flighted Iron Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Couples won\'t win and it has nothing to do with
> > imagined golf gods. unless by golf gods they
> mean
> > karma.
> >
> >
> >
> > For this game you need, above all things, to be
> in
> > a tranquil frame of mind.
> > - Harry Vardon
>
>
> Brave prediction there.
>
> Who cares, its still a great story to watch a man
> at this stage of his career compete on this
> stage.
>
> I\'m sure you probably thought the same thing when
> Tom Watson was contending for the British Open
> last year.
>
> Thanks for the positive energy this morning.


P-Dub,

  First off Watson has won 39 times including 8 majors vs Couples 15 times and
1 fortunate major. Watson is one of the all-time greats and Couples wins the all-time popularity contest. The one thing all golfers agree on is the merit system because it eliminates the clueless clown political element.

  Couples captains pick of Woods for the presidents cup was a farce at best.Couples referred to Woods as the \"greatest player forever\" and that was his
reasoning for the pick. Similar to his lucky win at augusta so was his pick in the sense that it Happened to be Woods point to clinch.

  Fact is Woods isn\'t in the top five of any top category in professional match
play and at the time of selection there were many guys on their merit who deserved the spot! Ask Couples how the \"greatest player forever\" is enjoying the
georgia pines. Mind you i\'m not rooting against Woods,but he\'s looking more like
a (NY bred slow rat)than freddy\'s prize pig.

  Personally i\'m rooting for the likes of Westwood,Mcilroy,Bubba,Kuchar and Scott. Merit!!

[Flighted Iron]

and Philly Mick!

[P-Dub]

Yes, Couples is a popular golfer.  Thats why many people would like to see him do well.

What does it matter how many tournaments or majors a guy has won??

You\'re certainly free to root for whomever you want.

I don\'t care what he called Tiger, who he picked for the President\'s Cup, or any of the other stuff.

I just think its cool that a guy at his age, competing against guys half his age, with a bad back, is leading after 2 rds.

He played poorly today and fell back. Oh well.

You really take this stuff seriously.

[alm]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> alm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So here\'s what I see.
>
> > Personally I don\'t think is a particularly
> tough
> > group.  I\'ll stick with Pletcher in this
> > case...with a horse that appears ready for a
> > breakthrough race.
>
> Alm:
>
> You better hope so, or your rather excellent Derby
> future selection is outside
> looking in in terms of earnings.
>
> I look forward to watching Caleb\'s Posse, who to
> me was clearly last years top 3YO
> on the basis of his 4 graded stakes wins,
> including Grade 1 scores in the BC Dirt
> Mile and the Kings Bishop (while many say that
> Caleb passed a leg weary Uncle Mo
> in the Kings Bishop, his burst of speed in the
> last 1/8th mile was rather
> breathtaking).
>
> Trainer von Hemel has stated that the Met Mile is
> his objective with Caleb, and
> it is an important race in Caleb\'s 2012 campaign
> with the BC Mile being run at 2
> turns at SA this year. While Caleb was not really
> ineffective at two turning last
> year (winning the Ohio Derby (Gr 3) at 1-1/16th,
> running second in the Rebel
> behind The Factor and in front of eventual Ark
> Derby winner Archarcharch, and
> winning the one mile Smarty Jones at OP), it is
> clear he is a special colt in one
> turn races.
>
> As HP stated, a glorious weather weekend on tap in
> NY, with four graded stakes on
> the Wood card (and since the Clueless Clowns will
> never change, there is an all
> maiden pick 4 early in the card), the opening of
> Keeneland (cmon, haters, its
> very good racing -- synthetic or not) plus the
> Masters, with Tiger against the
> World. (I\'ll be pulling pretty strongly for the
> World here.)
>
> While I\'m rambling along, let me also mention that
> this weekend begins the
> pursuit of Lord Stanley\'s Cup. To me the NHL is
> very unique in that there is a
> marked difference between the regular season and
> the playoffs: Most notably, the
> controversial \"shootout\" tie breaking mechanism is
> not utilized, but also the
> intensity level, the way teams approach the game
> (much less chippiness) and the
> way the games are refereed makes for compelling
> sport; that being said, the
> moment the team I follow -- the NJ Debtvils -- is
> eliminated, I won\'t watch
> another game.


Three wide the entire route.  Was that a breakthrough race or what?

[ajkreider]

How do you think the time stacks up?  The track didn\'t seem super fast, but almost 1:51 is really loafing.

[alm]

We will have to wait to see what kind of number they get.  I was not paying close attention to the races during the day.  Most important, this horse keeps improving a modest amount, race to race...he\'s going in the right direction and most have not really assigned any importance to the fact that he is undefeated.  Also, that he has won at Churchill.  He has won most of his races with speed and now we know he can use that speed to get position and then move around other horses.  

Versatile.  Contender.

[Silver Charm]

Might not be great....idk!

But when he was challenged his daddy\'s pedigree kicked in and he will one tough customer in that CD stretch with another race in him

[miff]

Wood was on the slow side as was the surface all day with a stiff wind in their face in the one turn races.Wood only two turn race all day.Gem\'s fig may get saved by ground but race was slow, third place finisher, TOAG a slow slug only 3 back(a point+ before any ground comparison)

SA derby, Creative Cause no excuse, a common performance with a perfect trip.Winner IHA ok,looking outrun by CC around last turn but out-gaming CC.Raw time ok on a very glib Santa Anita surface.

Illinois Derby field embarrassing!


Derby contenders looking the same,like apples in a barrel.


Mike

[alm]

Appreciate the comments, but what is \'great?\'  Finishing third to a sprinter in an average Wood, then winning the Triple Crown?  I\'m not trying to be snarky, but just making a point.  These are young horses, developing race to race.  It\'s a little too early to be looking for \'great.\'  Gemologist is undefeated...no other contending three year old can say as much.  And he didn\'t appear to want anyone to pass him today, that\'s for sure.

[ajkreider]

Agree about Aqueduct.  Broadway\'s Alibi had wind in the face for the long run out of the chute, and still put up 1:36.5 for the mile.  Even figuring for the turn and the extra distance, that performance was better than the Wood runners.  Re-rally by winner does suggest there is more there, though, and a good gallop-out too.

SA Derby time was ordinary as well.  Two allowance races went through the mile faster, and the state breds weren\'t slowing down much.  I\'m sure Baffert\'s runners are nice horses, but jumping up to 3rd and 4th in a G1 makes one wonder about the quality of the race.

Last two weeks are a bunch of \"meh\".

[miff]

Al,

Gem is definitely ok but like the rest, he has not run that fast yet and seems to have no advantage over 5-6 others.You may have been impressed, I thought his run from about the 5/16 th\'s was on the grindy side. Likes CD but can\'t see him winning the derby without a good trip(same for all of them)

Depending on the Arkansas Derby and the Blue Grass, this may be one of the slowest/evenly matched groups of 3yr olds in a while.

I think there is only one horse with a 100 Beyer and none with a serious TG fig( like 1/2 or zero-ish) so far.


Mike

[big18741]

Creative Cause ran a 0 in the San Felipe.

His trainer mentioned that TG # post race yesterday.We\'ll see if Harrington can get him back to that top at Churchill or better but he wasn\'t expecting another big race out of his horse yesterday.

Hansen jumped up to a 0.5 in the Gotham.

Beyer gave the Wood a 98 yesterday and with the wide I\'m guessing Gemologist was in the 0 range.

The filly(KY Oaks) is the only one besides those three to run fast enough so far.

Creative Cause is versatile and appears to have more gas on the turns than the other two.

[miff]

Big,

First, like to have what Harrington is smoking.CC awful yesterday hanging off a perfect trip, barely getting by Blue Skys and Rainbows???, getting run down by a horse he left for dead on the turn who had a tougher trip. CC\'s works up to the SA derby tough to read.

Second,surprised Beyer gave Gemologist a 98(Teeth of Dog improved 10 points?) as there was nothing fast about that race except the first quarter,somewhat aided by the wind.At Saratoga and Aqueduct Beyer has sometimes had issues with two turn route raw times not stacking up vs the rest of the day, esp when there are no other two turn dirt routes.Think JB found the same problem, not sure what RAGS does.

Yesterday an example of the one turners out of the chute,with a much longer run into the wind than the Wood,coming up much faster than the Wood projecting out raw time.Tough to convert/project one and two turn races due to the very different dynamics/strategy employed by jocks and of course the different layout.

Anyhow if TG/RAGS agree with Beyer, you have Gemologist in/near negative territory without running anything resembling a fast split.

Good luck,

Mike

[miff]

Al,

My reference to the current crop reflects now, what happens in the future is unknown.Hansen and Bodemeister have to still run.Point is that we\'ve all seen the contenders run more than once and . Think Algorythms and Fed Biz showed more brilliance than any of these, so far.

I never believed for one minute that horses have an on/off switch that a trainer can use.It\'s possible that some horses have not been \"pressed down\"on but that does not mean when they are, they will be faster.

Incidentally, always believe what you see with your eyes more than anything else.

Good luck,

Mike