can he do it 4 times in a row? :eek:

it not about the surface, you said its so strange that he doesn't win when he ships, i'm just saying I don't think its strange at all. whenever they ship him they run him in much tougher races. i would think that would be obvious to you!

I agree.A grade 1 with claimers?It happens all the time in Cal. Crap Fields.Crap racing.Business As usual from Cal.

while it may be true about facing horses that are better when he ships, it is misleading to bring up times of the two races ran today.

Well it is either a 9 horse field sprinkled with some high priced claimer or a 4 to 6 horse field of mediocre horses. It doesn't matter where they run - thats the current state of horse racing

Not true. People will race where they think they can win for the most money.

Assmusen thought he had them so-so juvi fillies over the barrel too. They handed him his head.

So true...............:o

makes you wonder then why they don't ship out west for that easy win....but then, we've seen that before. someone ships out west, and they lose. and then those excuses start flying, just like when someone ships from out west!

Exactly...grade one races with big purses and all those "great" eastern-based horses don't ship for "easy money"...hard to explain. Before the excuse was the track surface but now...??? I'm a east coast guy but fair is fair...they said the same crap way back when...no cheap horse from Cal could beat the mighty War Admiral in a match race...how did that work out??

He simply doesn't fire at all in those out of state races.It's not the quality of horses that gets him beat.It's either the surface or he likes the warm days/cool nights that we pretty much get year round in L.A. If it was the quality of horses,then they would come face him here(they don't.)Even though Monmouth may be more like what he likes, I wouldn't go. For whatever reason,he just doesn't fire out of SOCAL.

Bailey was saying that Monmouth might indeed be more to his liking but I agree...he can wait for the BC to come to him. Still, since it doesn't appear to be the surface that gets him, you'd think some creative thinking might be in order...maybe van him in segments or go very early so he can acclimate...I don't know, something might work.

A replica of his stall? They've certainly got the cash to do it. :D

remember Lava Man was claimed for 50K.

Frankly, I'd try anything...one grade one win outside Cal and this horse would finally get the respect he deserves!

Thats a great quote from someone back east.

Out west he gets all of the respect he deserves. We have artificial surfaces out west now. Purses are great and so is the weather. Lets see some of those top back east horses find an excuse to not ship out west now.

Horse is game and gutty and a champ.

In Cali, that may be the case. Ship him and he's a whole different animal. I can't really knock him because he does get the job done over there.

A Cal bred field of 3 year old fillies would have been competitive in that joke of a Mother Goose, that hanging rat Octave was still trying to finish second, the field was so bad she won in spite of it. THAT was the worst Grade 1 today by FAR!!!! And if you think Political Force would have won the Gold Cup your nuts, that was a pathetic display of racing on the grand scale back east.

I agree the MOther Goose was a joke. A tad biased about PF as he got me caught up and then some bills wise. So Lava Man would have won the Suburban?? My opinion is no.

Lava Man is a claimer. AP Arrow was up the track after four third place finishes behind Premium Tap,Invasor,Corinthian and Papi Chullo and a win over Political Force. Big Booster may have found his surface and deserves some credit after closing into slow fractions his last two races.

I'm not contending that this field was good but if you point out that the claimers in the race or the contenders that were beaten by claimers made it a poor field then what does that say about the horses that AP Arrow has been running against? Granted he shipped cross country and ran on an unfamiliar surface.

Any of these horses including every horse in the Suburban could be claimers in their poorest form cycle. Who knows, maybe Big Booster is the best claim since Lava Man. Time will tell.