Because people don't like Jerry Bailey? That's all I got.

Bailey might have ridden Eddington like he had no shot, but that didn't necessarily mean Eddington actually had no shot.

The opening half mile in that years Belmont was 48.65 (slow pace)

The middle half mile in that years Belmont was 46.79 (an absolutely sizzling midde half!)

The final half mile in that years Belmont was 52.06 seconds (pretty slow)

Basically -- all of the real running happened during the second half mile in that race. And it happened because Rock Hard Ten attacked Smarty Jones at an incredibly pre-mature stage of the race.

I guess I need to re-watch the race. It's just what I thought at the time and agree with people's take on that. If I re-watch it now I'd maybe see it like that.

As for Eddington, he did a lot of his damage after the Belmont if I remember correctly? He came into the race winning the Lone Star race right? But he got most of his wins after the Belmont?

I believe your boy Eddington was third in the Preakness in his start immediately prior to the Belmont. Definitely a no hoper.

And how many lengths did Smarty win the Preakness by? How many? I bet you were drinking the Smarty Kool-aid just like everyone else was after that race

I'm not trying to side-track this thread too much. I'm just saying I think Rags runs his race and doesn't worry about IHA. Matz has him in here thinking he can win this thing his way. So others may try to race ride IHA, but I don't think Rags will do that. All I'm saying.

I'm not sure of your point here, but admitting you were wrong about Jerry Bailey and Eddington in the 2004 Belmont was a good start.

Here was Royal Assault's running line:



He ran the most efficient race possible.

He was about 2 lengths back after a quarter, 3.5 lengths back after a half mile -- when the race horse race started -- he plummeted to 17 lengths back after a mile -- and he gained a lot of ground in the stretch to finish 3rd beaten 9 lengths ahead of horses like Rock Hard Ten, Eddington, and Purge ... three horses that he couldn't dream of even warming up.

I haven't re-watched the race yet. I'm not conceding anything. You still haven't answered the question. How many lengths did Smarty win the Preakness over 3rd place Eddington? Oh. But Eddington was just getting warmed up right? He needed that race. A solid 4th in the Belmont. Solid.

Also notice that in the latter part of 04 and early 05 is when Eddington really did start winning, like I mentioned.

Amazingly, to Birdstone's credit, he only lost 2 lengths of ground during that supersonic middle half mile.

He was 5th by 3 lengths after a half mile and 4th by 5 lengths after a mile.

Five of the nine horses in that race lost more than 11 lengths through the middle half mile.

It was basically where all the real running occurred.

Smarty Jones deserved to win that race, but Birdstone wasn't super lucky. He also had to work hard in the middle and ran ok.

If people went back and actually watched that Belmont, they have to be very surprised at how close Birdstone was the entire race. It was far from a situation where he sucked up into a collapsed race.

watching that race with my pops, I remember going into the stretch, I said to my dad "uh oh. That 4 is gaining on him" I didn't bet the race (beside a souvenir win ticket), so I didn't even know that the 4 was Birdstone until later in the stretch. But did anyone? Was over 30-1 right?

Dude, you claimed a GI winning $1 millionaire had "no shot" in a race, like it was preposterous that Eddington was even entered in the race, and since he was, it was a given that the horse was there to bother Smarty Jones. All of this while apparently forgetting Rock Hard Ten (or Purge for that matter) were even in the race.

And now your argument has changed to something regarding Eddington's performance in the Preakness? I don't think I could make up your line of reasoning if I tried. With all due respect.

Look at Eddington's race record going into the Belmont, and look at the result of the Preakness. No doubt Eddington later that year turned into a very good horse. I'm just saying that going into the Belmont he indeed had no chance on paper. But I thought no one on paper had a shot going into the Belmont.

Eddington's Grade 1 win in the Pimlico Special (his last race), was at 4. He also won the Gulfstream Pk Hdcp (Gr 2) that year. In his 3 yo season he was no closer than 3rd (Gotham, Wood, Preakness and Travers) against the likes of SJ, Birdstone and Tapit. He was 4th in the Jim Dandy and Belmont. Not an outrageous no hoper, I always thought that given his running style, was not helped by his Belmont ride. To Doug's point, he may have been closer to the lead in the 1st half mile simply because the pace was so slow, and not because he was being asked by JDB.

The day of that Pimlico Special, Ashado figured out a way to lose to Silmaril, which led to a woman sitting next to me in the sub-50 degree Baltimore weather that day to scream "come on, don't lose to that Maryland bred NAG!!!!"

Bailey's ride gave Eddington no chance to win, but he (and every other jockey) are notorious for doing that on a regular basis. From the start, it seemed like Solis was desperate to just screw over Smarty Jones however he could with Rock Hard Ten.

Did Solis ever ride Rock Hard Ten after that race? That was as bad a ride as we will ever see in a big race.

i am sure worse rides are right around the corner.

Who'd ever have thunk that a sentence would be formed that contained the words idiotic, Rock Hard Ten, and jockey?