So, he felt poorly prior to the race, then he grabs a quarter leaving the gate. That's enough for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's see how he works at Churchill and go from there.

Asudevil told me about the secret surgery before he ever ran in the Timely Writer. He even told me who he heard it from.

Also - all the people who know people who know people - were buzzing about how something was supposedly wrong with the horse while he was out training and working on cue every Sunday ... and other horses (like The Factor and Premier Pegasus) were flat out missing works.

If I had to make a line on the secret surgery...

I'd say it's 90% that he had it.

10% that he didn't have it.

It was to remove an ankle chip if I recall.

Can Maggie confirm that?

And now the excuse is agida?? So he's going to get some horsey Brioschi and get on with it?? Alrighty then....

Don't you mean DID Maggie point this out to her audience?

Didn't they have an 'alabi dinner' before the Preakness every year? Where every trainer would concoct excuses for why they lost before the race?

Alibi Breakfast

I wonder if anyone ever used...

"Frischling bet on my horse"

A present-day Preakness tradition, the Alibi Breakfast, which seems to grow larger every year, was founded in the Old Clubhouse. The late Vaughn Flannery, an artist who painted many scenes of Pimlico, is credited with proposing the Alibi Table in the corner of the Clubhouse. The table was set up early each morning during race meetings, by order of Joe Stevens, Sr. Trainers, racing officials and other guests dropped by during training hours for coffee and a food snack, and swapped racing stories. Many tales involved details of losing bets, hence the name—Alibi Table. Attendance grew over the years. Now 500 or more have breakfast at Pimlico on the Friday morning before the Preakness

:D


Just so it's never Slo Mo.

I've used it.

This is interesting. According to Paulick, "neither Pletcher nor Repole has responded to questions confirming or denying the surgery."

If the secret surgery is indeed true, it brings the conversation back full circle to where we were in November comparing Mo to Arazi. If I recall, Arazi missed quite a bit of training after the BC because of some bone chips, and he was never the same.

Yeah, but "bone chips" can be significant, or can be minor, or in between.
Plenty of horses have had surgery to remove chips, most often it's never mentioned to the public, most often the horses are fine.