Preakness Wrap Up

[FrankD.]

Maryland\'s racing product gets the spotlight a mere 2 days a year and deserves nothing more. It\'s a circuit that has been in shambles for years; called part of the Mid-Atlantic wild west by many for good reason.

The potential for 2 great days of quality racing drew my interest as well as many others that never look to Pimlico or Laurel at all. Some interesting races, full fields for the turf events, 2 pick 4\'s each day along with rolling pick 3\'s. Many scratches, a deader than dead racing surface and a probably X coming from TGJB made for another disappointing big race weekend. There is no excuse what so ever to have a race track as slow as this one played for a major event; NONE!

Win, lose or draw we pluck our money down throughout the year. We compensate for drugs, track bias, weather and 100 other variables that make this the toughest but most rewarding game around. Is it really too much to ask for on a marque weekend to have a real, fair, perfectly groomed surface? After a consecutive Derby & Breeders Cup at Churchill with dead rails 2 years ago and now this surface with the hype of a popular horse and connections in the spotlight is simply unacceptable.

Congratulations to the Lukas/Stevens combination on another Triple Crown victory and an awesome ride by the comeback kid who rocked them all to sleep on the engine. Orb had nothing and put in an almost non effort that has Shug already talking Belmont if he comes out ok?

The numbers for the race will be ugly for sure and My Lute will tease us with a wide effort into a slow pace.

I played a crazy saver pick 4 that could have left a better taste for the 2 days on my palate but it was not to be. Pianist / Sage Valley / All / Orb & IMLD.

Oh Well it\'s on to Belmont; some more lunatic fringe posts about nothing to look forward to and an unimpressive group staggering home trying to get a mile and a half. I for one am very disappointed in a group of 3 yr olds that looked to have a lot of potential early in the year. Maybe Dreaming of Julia will challenge the boys in the Belmont? Why not; other than Orb & IMLD who will never get the distance what\'s left of the generation is void of negative numbers.

Good luck,

Frank D.

[TreadHead]

I\'m still in complete disgust over the outcome of the race, I had pk4s working to orb and mylute and also had those+ IMLD, GovCharlie, WTC, Departing in multiple pk3s.  But surely most others here have a similar story.  Some additional discussion points:

1) I\'m not aware of any other figure-making outfit that gave higher figs to the Wood and Fla Derby than the SA Derby (mostly talking about Beyer, BRIS, etc here) and most scored the SA Derby better by a large margin.  While the results of the last 2 races can\'t be 100% validation that those other outfits horribly inflated the SA Derby results, it is pretty tough to argue otherwise.  That huge Beyer figure caused a LOT of ppl to burn a LOT of money in the last 2 races.

2) I believe there was some extensive discussion here on 2yr old foundation and the ability to handle negative numbers.  I\'ll go back to my original statement in that discussion, multiple neg2s in a 3yr old spring hurt, period.  I had certainly expected a smaller regression here and was hoping for a big Belmont play-against, but getting the timing down will never be easy.  Maybe his foundation caused him to be able to put up a second neg2 where Verrazano could not, but I would assert that there isn\'t any level of foundation that can allow a horse to get thru a TC season when the Derby is a pairing of a neg2.

3) What could a healthy Verrazano have done in this race?  

4) Overblown trouble excuse yet again for WTC

5) Wayne is accepting a ton of glory now, but we will see what happens after the rough spring campaign he is putting horses like Oxbow and Optimizer thru.  Unless something has changed we all don\'t know about yet, he can\'t just keep running these horses every 2 or 3 weeks without something bad about to appear on the horizon.

[Beau]

Ragozin had the Fla Derby at 3 3/4 for Orb, SA Derby a 7 1/2 for Goldencents, and the Wood 5 1/2 for Verrazano.

They have both the Wood and Fla Derby faster than the SA Derby!

[richiebee]

TreadHead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
 
> 5) Wayne is accepting a ton of glory now, but we
> will see what happens after the rough spring
> campaign he is putting horses like Oxbow and
> Optimizer thru.

If the answer to that question is \"Skyring\", who ran 16 times as a 3YO,
well I guess thats not so bad.

[TreadHead]

I wasn\'t trying to suggest that every horse that is campaigned hard ends up with a serious or catastrophic injury.  There will surely be exceptions, or maybe even a majority that can handle it.  But when you run multiple in this manner, stakes performers running in the 0-2 range on a somewhat regular basis, the % or injury seem to be increased and the law of averages will catch up at some point.

[Topcat]

FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maryland\'s racing product gets the spotlight a
> mere 2 days a year and deserves nothing more. It\'s
> a circuit that has been in shambles for years;
> called part of the Mid-Atlantic wild west by many
> for good reason.
>
> The potential for 2 great days of quality racing
> drew my interest as well as many others that never
> look to Pimlico or Laurel at all. Some interesting
> races, full fields for the turf events, 2 pick 4\'s
> each day along with rolling pick 3\'s. Many
> scratches, a deader than dead racing surface and a
> probably X coming from TGJB made for another
> disappointing big race weekend. There is no excuse
> what so ever to have a race track as slow as this
> one played for a major event; NONE!
>
> Win, lose or draw we pluck our money down
> throughout the year. We compensate for drugs,
> track bias, weather and 100 other variables that
> make this the toughest but most rewarding game
> around. Is it really too much to ask for on a
> marque weekend to have a real, fair, perfectly
> groomed surface? After a consecutive Derby &
> Breeders Cup at Churchill with dead rails 2 years
> ago and now this surface with the hype of a
> popular horse and connections in the spotlight is
> simply unacceptable.
>
> Congratulations to the Lukas/Stevens combination
> on another Triple Crown victory and an awesome
> ride by the comeback kid who rocked them all to
> sleep on the engine. Orb had nothing and put in an
> almost non effort that has Shug already talking
> Belmont if he comes out ok?
>
> The numbers for the race will be ugly for sure and
> My Lute will tease us with a wide effort into a
> slow pace.
>
> I played a crazy saver pick 4 that could have left
> a better taste for the 2 days on my palate but it
> was not to be. Pianist / Sage Valley / All / Orb &
> IMLD.
>
> Oh Well it\'s on to Belmont; some more lunatic
> fringe posts about nothing to look forward to and
> an unimpressive group staggering home trying to
> get a mile and a half. I for one am very
> disappointed in a group of 3 yr olds that looked
> to have a lot of potential early in the year.
> Maybe Dreaming of Julia will challenge the boys in
> the Belmont? Why not; other than Orb & IMLD who
> will never get the distance what\'s left of the
> generation is void of negative numbers.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Frank D.


I\'m not ignoring D Wayne\'s streak of 9,014,000 consec loses in graded stakes before his recent stretch of resurrection and redemption.  He takes a lot shots he frankly shouldn\'t take . . . but he runs his horses when they\'re telling him they feel like running, stemming from a broad old-time attitude which traces back to Woody and Leroy, goes back far deeper into the past than that . . . and which isn\'t wholly a bad thing.

[pizzalove]

Treadhead,

Agreed.  Especially with point #5.  These horses on paper look like they are more likely to break down then win.

Pat