If he is hurting then why in the heck is he racing? I don't know Pletcher but from what I have read on this forum he isnt the type of trainer to run a horse if the horse is injured. The fact that Pletcher races this horse tells me the horse is about 95-100%.

In the Gotham he got beat by Like Now. He couldnt get by a 36-1 shot. We all know that the Gotham wasnt a very good prep. Other than SNS coming back and running well in the Derby and Belmont what has any horse in the Gotham done? The Wood he got 3rd and was beaten by Bob and John (overrated) and Jazil who turned out to be a good horse.

Keyed Entry is a fine horse. Just dont think he has the talent to compete in Grade I or Grade II races. He is too slow to hang with the sprinters and does not have the stanima to hang with routers. I would still LOVE to own the horse.

Keyed Entry is yet another name on the long, and growing, list of horses from the Pletcher barn that run logic defying races in South Florida only to fizzle out as the year progresses. We see it every year.

I will be shocked if Keyed Entry shows up again this year. However, if he isn't retired I fully expect him to run a Beyer figure of around 110 sometime early in the 2007 Gulfstream meet. From there we will see somewhere around 39 threads about him on various sites, he will promptly lose his next start, and fade into oblivion.

Sort of a sequel of a sequel.

Do you really believe that Todd wanted to run him in the Derby as badly as he pouted and fumed all week long that he couldnt get Sunriver in the race?
I know many owners are indeed qualified to have a high degree of input as to where and when their horses should race, or they employ managers who who are qualified to do so. I'm not real sure that this owner is on that list.

The point Oracle is that Keyed digressed in the Wood and Gotham from his performance in Florida. He wasnt showing improvement when he went longer distances when he went back to NY. He ran a great race at 7f on an off-track. He then gets 2nd in the Gotham and 3rd in the Wood. He just hasnt progressed during his 3 year old season.

I am reasonably certain the owners pushed Pletcher to run the horse in the Derby.

Maybe that was the final nail in the coffin for this horse, it's certainly happened before, but the pattern of " Great Florida - nothing the rest of the year " has occurred too many times to be ignored.

The simple fact, if you ask me, is there are too many horses, in a number of barns, that seem to run inexplicably great for one or two starts, only to tail off VERY quickly and/or disappear for upwards of a year...or forever.

Actual good horses do not do this ( or at least hadn't done this for a hundred years leading up to the new millenium ) and yet it has become a frequent situation in a few barns.