garbage ;)
 

on racing record - You have to judge Curlin to get a standard for where Hard Spun belongs. If you consider Curlin the 1st or 2nd best racing 3yo, that bodes well for Hard Spun to be closely ranked. Both times Hard Spun didn't have a garbage ride he beat Curlin. To be fair, you have to consider Curlin's garbage ride in the Derby where Albarado asked nothing out of the gate, and was left with a lot of work, when he could have loomed in the pocket that Sedgefield enjoyed. You also have to be realistic that even a decent ride for Hard Spun in the Preakness would have likely left him short of the top two that day.
Do you rank the Pletcher move-up AGS 3rd best or HS? Up to you. Maybe it comes down to specific distances with these two. Saturday is clearly more explosive in the last two races and possibly better than 3rd best for pure racing ability right now. We wait to see if AGS will revert back to his natural ability under a stressful 10 panels in the BC Classic.

on physicallity - Hard Spun is the best 3yo dirt animal. He made Curlin look like a donkey head-to-head in the Haskell paddock, and Curlin is a big boy himself! HS is a superior animal. This is no runt. Street Sense and Curlin are beautiful horses, but Hard Spun is a cut above.

on pedigree - His pedigree is pretty good. A little hard to compare pedigrees, but I don't know that I would rank Hard Spun necessarily top-5 of the 3yos. He could easily turn out to be. Will be interesting to see if they breed him with any classy turf producers as well.

I don't like to get into the debates, however, in this case I'll throw my hat in the ring. First, and don't attack me for saying this, however, I was never -- never -- a fan of Hard Spun . . . not until Saturday. For whatever, reason, I just wasn't a fan. I didn't think he'd be there in the Derby, but could be in the Preakness. Regardless, I think unlike many others, I can bifurcate "betting" from who I like, am rooting for, etc. Regardless as well, I had the exacta both ways.

After the trip he got, and doing what he did -- at a certain point, coming down the stretch on Saturday, I was rooting for this horse. Prior to this race, like I said, I was never a fan. One thing I did think was that he was the "toughest" of the 3yo's. How can you not appreciate showing up to every dance, time and time again, doing the dirty work for the most part, and accomplishing what this colt has accomplished. Are there things people can knock him on? Sure, it's always easy to be a critic (thanks to Rick Pitino for the line). I am sure some will say he should have gotten third in the Belmont. Whatever, doesn't matter. Saturday should have turned critics into fans.

Curlin -- I think Curlin had an incredible amount of talent and potential. I thought, he had the most "natural" or "raw" talent. Doing what he did -- in his third, fourth, fifth, and sixth lifetime stars? He was hanging and banging with the best colts going -- like them or not -- as an unseasoned, inexperienced colt. I just thought this horse was getting better, learning, moving forward, and getting tougher. I thought that if he kept going, we could see one hell of a horse come summer -- if and only if he didn't fall victim to "too much too soon" and I am not sure if that was/is the case. This horse had incredible talent. He was asked for a great deal, very early on. His Monmouth race was enigmatic to some extent. Sure, I would have liked to see a more "even" track and would have liked to see him "run" and put in more of a "run", but it is what it is.

Street Sense -- what do you have to say about this horse. Are some going to fault him for not winning the Preakness? I am sure they are. Will some/many fault him for not showing up to the Belmont? I think so, and personally I think that's ludicrous. Will they question the Travers? I guess so as well.

Any Given Saturday -- I liked him in the Monmouth race. I thought he could beat Curlin only because of the track, the way it plays, etc. I thought Curlin, if he (and the talent/ability) showed up could overcome it. I did not think AGS was THAT kind of horse. I think in that race, he overachieved and outran what I thought he could do all things considered. I know a lot of people, people's who have opinion I respect, horsemen, trainers, jockeys, handicappers, who share the same opinion. That performance was a bit of a surprise. Maybe he turned the corner and stepped up. I guess we will soon see.

Anway, I hope all of them come back sound, fit, healthy and we can see them all at their best.

Eric

Bifurcate.... don't see that one used much these days.

Segment?

OK, seperate (I don't have spell-checker and actually wasn't sure about the spelling, LOL).

Eric

You used it right (I think). I'm keeping it handy for use at the right time....

The mile / dirt has a purse of 1 million dollars and is actually run at 1 mile and 70 yard this year because of the track configuration. ( I guess) Dont know if it is graded. He fits the mile much better than the Classic.

It's not graded, as far as I know.

Lava Man and Discreet Cat are going in that race. Highly unlikely they will ever allowHard Spun to race against Discreet Cat.

C.) None of the above.

Discreet Cat will get there and will probably do something similar to Ghostzapper's Met Mile and wow everyone, then they will retire him.

Here's the difference... Ghostzapper had nothing to prove to breeders at that point in his career. He was already the best horse in the world by 4-5 lengths at any distance, and unfortunately a fracture would have kept him out of training for too long as a 5yo. Discreet Cat has shown flashes of brilliance but hasn't sustained anything to justify a sky high stud fee.

lets see, who's more likely to race.

a filly who is already in race shape and is worth maybe 5 mil?

or a fragile colt that just had his first workout a mere 2 months before the bc, and is worth maybe 50 mil?

hmm.

DC is a nice 7f horse

OOOOOOOOOO

Hard Spun showed a lot of courage the other day. He's earned my respect as a horse that u have to consider at any distance under 12f. But as much courage as he showed the other day, it didn't inspire me to believe that he'd be able to hold off better horses than First Defence next time. A horse like Surf Cat or Greg's Gold would have likely run right on by while First Defence didn't. Even at 6f. Stretching him out to a mile against top classes horses wouldn't seem to be the move either because the race is an elongated sprint and would set up the same way. The Classic seems like it's the best option for him because he's more than likely to be able to control the pace and slow them down like he did in the Derby. But then I don't think he's going to beat the best 3yo's or Lawyer Ron at 10f. I see him as a horse without a race. I think he's probably best at 9f and I expect to see him dominate the KY Cup Classic, assuming Street Sense is not there. Then on to the Classic.

you should be receiving some pea garden flyers later this week.