Quote from: stark on August 01, 2018, 10:36:40 AM
No need to look it up in a dictionary, it was the very definition of HEART in a horse, doesn't show up in pedigree reports or workout times but it's there when you need it, very few have/had one as big as Affirmed.

I have always thought that Pincay got the most from Affirmed. For the longest time I had a gold button, commorating Affirmed being the first horse to earn 2M. They gave them out to everyone at Hollywood Park the day Affirmed won the Gold Cup with Pincay up. A truly game performance with Affirmed carrying 132 while beating that year's Whittingham Euro, Sirlad, and a tough little pony sized Elmendorf horse, Text. Both were getting quite a bit of weight.  Certainly not to disparage Steve Cauthen, but I always wondered what those TC races would have been like had the Pirate been up.

As for Alydar, he was something in his own right. It was really too bad he got hurt after the Travers. He wasn't the same horse at four. He lost to horses like State Dinner and Star De Naskra, who were nice horses, but shouldn't have been able to warm him up.

Quote from: Raven on August 01, 2018, 08:40:02 AM
Besides witnessing Ruffian.go for wand  my other big heartbreak was hisBelmont loss

I rooted for Alydar during that TC series. Looking back though, Affirmed really earned that TC. I don't know if I've ever seen a tougher horse.

Quote from: stark on July 31, 2018, 05:56:58 PM
BAAAAD memory......

He went to Churchill for the Breeders Cup, Belmont for the JockeyClub Gold Cup and Gulstream too, sorry my bad.

I remember he ran down pretty bad at Belmont—you probably did see him there Raven— and he tore his frog in the Japan Cup. He shipped okay when he was the pony for I'll Have Another in the 2012 Classics, though. He was probably a better horse on turf. He seemed to lose his form pretty quickly with the change to synthetics, which by all accounts he should have loved. I never knew for sure if it was the track surface at that point or whether he was just over the top.

Quote from: Raven on July 31, 2018, 01:57:53 PM
Didn't he win couple  Hollywood Gold Cups?
I thing I seen him race at Belmont once

3 Gold Cups, 2 Big Caps, a Pacific Classic, a Goodwood and a Charlie Whittingham—all G1's. He also had a 2nd and a 3rd in two other Whittingham's, a placing in the Malibu and a 3rd in another Pacific Classic after getting caught up in a suicidal pace duel. He was so rubber legged after that latter race he almost went down on the way back to the barn. He was a notoriously poor shipper and was often derided for beating inferior horses in CA but as a racehorse he was as game as they come. Let's hope he's still got enough gameness in him to pull through this.

Quote from: peeptoad on July 30, 2018, 02:33:38 AM
didn't see the Clement Hirsch last night, but this is why I think the Distaff may be more wide open than it appears ...and a few more races yet tom play out. I'm expecting this to be one of the more contentious races on the BC card.

I still think there is a big gap between the older mares and the 3yo's fillies. I am tiring of hearing about the 9f races—by both genders of 3yo's—completed at or near 1:50, though. Tracks are deeper than they were over the last few years and that will result in times slowing down throughout a race. The tracks are almost, in a way, a hybrid between natural dirt and synthetic in the way horses move over them. The back end is getting more use than before. Before the tracks started monkeying around with the synthetic surfaces in CA, it was difficult to assess a speed horse on synthetics. They seemed, no matter how slow the pace, hit a wall at the 1/16th pole. In a way, Unique Bella reminds me of that. She towers over most any field she comes up against on talent, but her competitive nature won't allow her to truly relax early which is why I think she can be vulnerable to a horse better than La Force.

Quote from: BaroqueAgain1 on July 30, 2018, 10:16:59 AM
   There were two impressive youngsters who won yesterday: The Glen Hill Farm filly, Summering (War Front) wired the field in a 1-mile MSW on the turf, and Roadster (Quality Road), the much-touted colt from the Baffert barn, won easily in his MSW on the dirt.

Props to Stark for starting a thread on Roadster before the colt's first out over on the Mothership.  I'm currently looking for a horse in utero on which to start a thread.😉 I hate singling an unraced 2yo—especially from the rail—in the first race of a P4, but I'd have to say he checked off all the boxes. Looks like he'll stretch out just fine too.

Well, I could go hat shopping with Raven.😉 Ron Ellis, who maybe wants Don Alberto to toss him a horse, was, like Stark, going on and on about how easy Unique Bella won. I didn't see it that way, but I'm also not one of Unique Bella's biggest fans. My wife, who doesn't know Unique Bella from Giacomo, walked in during a replay of the stretch drive and said, "Wow, I thought that gray horse was going to get beat!"  I think La Force was getting to her, I don't think she'll ever beat her but that race was a little more taxing than some might want to think. I think if Unique Bella is in against a better mare than La Force who can finish, she'll get beat. It would have been interesting had Abel Tasman been in, today. Gawd forbid someone risk getting their nice, top level horse beat. Had she been in though......

Quote from: BaroqueAgain1 on July 28, 2018, 10:52:00 AM
   I was looking at the entries for Del Mar's 1st, which is a MSW for 2yos...and the weather for today is described as "Patchy Smoke."   
   The smoke from that terrible Idyllwild fire must being blowing down toward Del Mar. The barns there probably have a fair number of horses who fled the San Luis Rey fire; I wonder if the smell of smoke is going to make then anxious?   
   ETA: 'Pharoah's little sister, Chasing Yesterday, is debuting in that 1st race.

I hadn't heard about a fire in Idyllwild. That is where my wife and I were married. It can get ungodly hot and dry this time of year, I'm surprised there are not more bad fires there.

Quote from: ElPrado on July 26, 2018, 06:58:55 PM
Pletcher has a filly.
Guacamole.
Is she green?
I don't know. She did win today at the Spa.

If she is she made it look easy being green.

Quote from: ElPrado on July 27, 2018, 09:16:49 AM
After bouncing around this world for 66 years, I have learned that expecting any form of logic or sense, whether from a group or  individual, is usually a mistake.

I'm 55 and have been an educator most of my adult life. You pretty much have written my credo.

I don't quite understand the need for the Curlin or maybe the placement of it. I think it would make more sense to offer it Travers weekend to pull some no hopers, who meet the conditions, from there and to give a late developer a shot to prep for the fall races.

Quote from: peeptoad on July 27, 2018, 02:40:00 AM
Maybe he can lease the stall to Koriner's Paddock Pick, who beat the Baff's chalk rather easily the other day...

Yeah, and all he could do was get 2nd and 3rd in that G2 the other day. I'm thinkin' a gofundme might be in order, those house rentals in Del Mar aren't cheap.

I can see that. I should have worded it "that one could wear."  My wife proofreads my creative writing but as yet, not internet rants.😉

Quote from: stark on July 26, 2018, 08:59:48 AM
Curtis,
does that mean Justify could lose by a length and it would be considered a "quality start" by today's standards vs. yesteryear?

I'm not sure I'm completely qualified to answer that. You might want to consult Stewart Elliot unless 2004 qualifies as yesteryear.

 

Quote from: Raven on July 25, 2018, 03:53:07 PM
No need to get personal

That's my opinion  and you can have yours
As for proof, we will  never have one, either way.

Some people might put him on a pedestal, but I'm not one of them. He was regressing right after the Derby

I do apologize if you interpreted that I was labeling you with my comment. I did qualify it with "these boards," but I should have been more specific in terms of not referring to you personally.

The sport is based on disagreements, that's fine. Justify doesn't get the respect he deserves, in my opinion, for example his name is misspelled on the header for this thread. Things are different now all around. I'm a Dodger fan and a big Clayton Kershaw fan. Guys like Koufax, Drysdale and Sutton—Hall of Famers, all—were expected to and usually went 9 innings. Kershaw goes 7 and is breaking down physically at barely 30 years of age. Still a great pitcher though, just a different context.

Be well!