Horse probably did not like the surface today. I would not blame Spencer as he really worked hard to get this horse cross the finish line.

Didn't look like any of them liked the surface. But Spencer moved prematurely. It never should have been that close. He worked hard because he moved so early.

Again, he sucks.

Not sure if he could have anything different to make it even close. Fast pace, closed fast and fell short

I noted it in the play along thread, Spencer's move was awful. He single handily almost got Cape Blanco beat.

Nakatani's was another bizarre move, just horribly timed.

To the connections of Life at Ten, the blinkers didn't work. She's just not the same horse as she was pre-BC last year. Please retire her, she's done enough.

He probably did move prematurely but I would not rack it up that he sucks. He is not a regular rider at Belmont. You could have said the same thing about Dominguez since he had every chance to get by.

You don't need to make your move on the turn like that at Belmont. It takes great energy from the horse and almost never works. And to then try to stay inside assured a loss of momentum if they couldn't get through, and bingo. I don't think Jackson Bend beats Uncle Mo anyway, but he was excellent again today and not necessarily used to best advantage by Nakatani.

Visually it looked premature. If he sits and waits he still runs second. Either way he was not going to win the way the track is playing. I'm sure Zito and Nakatani knew they had to be within striking distance for them to have a chance at beating Mo.
Royal Delta faced the same problem later on. They tried to stay with HDG early on and she lost her punch but was good enough to be second best.

Only question now is Life at Ten going to take another shot at the BC?

Why, they are going to have an optional 50k claimer on the undercard that she's going to run in?

He has a long history of blowing rides in this country for making premature or just boneheaded moves. Instead of just disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing take a look at why it was so close.

Why am I even wasting my time on something so obvious?

Remember Brian Pochman's visit on ATR in May, coming on before the big weekend at Lone Star, talking about how all the horsemen they talked to about going to the LSP Handicap were wondering if Flat Out was going...when he was a horse who really hadn't accomplished anything???

At first I thought WTF too.

Then I reconsidered. As much as I cannot stand Nak, I think he rode the race that gave him his only chance of winning. No way he could possibly have won with Mo saying loose like that. Not that he was going to win anyways, but at least that ride gave him a small hope that Mo might fold when challenged.

True enough I suppose. I'll stand by my belief though that Nak thought he was giving his horse his best chance of winning.

All in all, I'll give JB credit. He ran a huge race. Of the races I saw today, his was the best, most surprising performance.

I also think Stay Thirsty ran a bigger race than I expected. I figured him not hitting the board.

It was stunning seeing Flat Out not being the heavy favorite.

After seeing how poorly Blind Luck ran today and considering she also missed whatever race over the summer they were going to run in, you have to give Havre De Grace a lot of credit. She came back from that grueling Delaware race and has run two very sharp races.

As in the Travers, Stay Thirsty looked like he was backing up on the turn, but once again when asked and hard ridden, he responded to persevere. He's an interesting horse.

Andy tweeted too about Flat Out being shockingly underbet. The Scooter factor?

It didn't matter because I don't think JB was winning either (especially with no one challing Uncle Mo early), but the problem I have with the move was that when he almost made the lead they still had a quarter of a mile to go. That was in a 23.2 quarter where Jackson Bend probably ran 22.3 making up about 5 lengths. What could of he really had for the stretch at that point? I just think that they would have better off served waiting until they got into the lane to try to get Mo. Maybe he would have gotten lazy and not seen him coming or JV could have ended up on the rail. The result probably would have been the same, but I just thinking that going after him late would have been better than going after him with still a quarter left to run.

Possibly. Funny how ESPN's people were wondering if they could get Scooter back on after talking to Harrington. I'd love to hear Scooter on ATR Monday, but doubt he'd have a lot more to say than what we heard this evening! Old school, man of few words. But when he was speechless, my eyes almost got wet. Maybe his wife will come on ATR with him? :D

I don't think a lot of Stay Thirsty. He seems like a grinder to me. I've seen grinders like him run like that. He's a horse with no acceleration!

As for Flat Out. I guess it's the Pletcher vs Scooter factor. Stay Thirsty has been the hype horse of the summer.

I found it amusing that off of a single grade 1 win and the grade 2 win that people were making into a grade 1, that he was being touted as the top 3yo.

As a rather lunatic fan of anything sired by Indian Charlie, I was glad JB made that move so that Uncle Mo would get something out of the race.

I agree that premature move or late move, it wouldn't have mattered in the end, but I don't think it was even slightly possible for JB to have won the race considering all of the race dynamics, had he waited later to move.

Looking at the stakes results it's no wonder why people play slots instead. Of course you're dealing with a sport full of yokels who've lost their competitive spirit and plan their campaigns like an overprotective mother. No wonder why these top horses are so garbage.

Ducking Uncle Mo? There really isn't much hope for the future if that's happening.