Your insinuation was misguided and despite providing links and quotes to back an extremely plausible theory, you continued to assume that the only reason that I was saying anything was because of my connection with the horse. You actually were the one who rushed to AJ's defense when I pointed out that perhaps physical issues were more to blame for the horses poor race than the distance or two trns and he replied as if I was making something up.

Is it correct to assume that Divine Park's entry into the Woodward had more to do with the Owner's intentions to run rather than the Trainer's? I would be surprised Mclaughlin would run a horse of this caliber if he was less than 100% which he most likely was by his non race Saturday, something's not right here, Mclaughlin is simply too good a trainer to run a suspect horse.

perhaps they went by the clean bill of health given by the clinic, while ignoring what the horse was indicating?

kinda like how coal play ran huge at monmouth and BB didnt look "the same" but still ran him down.

The Haskell and Woodward looked really similar to me. BB ran a much faster time but Saratoga seems like a much slower track (especially at 1 1/8) than Monmouth.

I hear you there, however I am a big believer in Trainer's normal patterns when handicapping. Maybe to a fault, there are some trainer's that have enough influence to not run even against owner's wishes. I think Mclaughlin is one of those Trainer's with a big enough reputation to do as he wishes, really I am confused why he was quoted as he fully expected Divine Park to run huge Sat, when all indications now seem to point the horse wasn't right. Some will say never listen to Trainers, they are full of $%$ but from my experience I have used comments to positive results before, either laying off horses or betting them.

What? Curlin ran on dirt 2x last fall, and in the Stepehn Foster. The Nad al Sheba track is a mix of dirt and synthetic so you can call it what you want.

I think the Bottom line is Curlin has looked rather ordinary his last 2 races, I hinted at this after his turf race, many dismissed it to the surface; however my reasoning was he had a great trip sitting off the leaders and really had no excuse for a horse of his stature to not pick them up down the lane, given the conditions of the race were written to him to a Tee. I would be surprised if this horse has many more races left in him and retirement as Chuck hinted can't be far off.

He was talking about the runner up.

I think Curlin's figure is a little high, but not grossly so. The Spinaway on Sunday appears to be inflated about 10 points. The pace was very hot and there was no running going on the last furlong at all.

Actually his last three races have been pretty ordinary, the Foster wasn't anything special either.

I hope for his handlers' sake he's fine but I have been very underwhelmed lately.

You sure about the bolded part?

You bring up something very interesting, when the discussion of great horses comes up or more particular "Cigar". I never believed he got enough credit for staying at that high level for that amount of time as he did. Though it is a fair arguement his competition was not the strongest during his streak, his numbers were very consistent, was he as fast as Ghostzapper? No. But in fairness to Cigar had Ghostzapper ran the exact same campaign as Cigar did, I doubt he would have been as brilliant as Cigar was. It's an Apples and oranges argument.

Cigar was also much faster than Curlin on a regular basis...

The Classic and the Dubai World Cup were extremely impressive to me, otherwise he's been merely very good and very consistent.

He can't be, because it wasn't true when he ran.

Couldn't it be that he runs best when the most money is on the line? Obviously the horse doesn't know this, but the trainer certainly does.

Certainly.

I also think Curlin is an extremely intelligent horse, who knows how much needs to be done, kind of like Cigar was. He takes instruction from the rider extremely well...

In Bailey's book, he mentioned Cigar was a very intelligent animal. I think Bailey put the brakes on him many a time, and that may have contributed to his longevity. Cigar was a beautifully well built horse, certainly not a fragile one. That helps also. Which begs the question who knows how fast he could have run if he they were not looking at the big picture.

My first thought watching from Del Mar was something wasnt right with DP. Then, when I watched the replay again and see Garcia look down at his right hind three times in the stretch it certainly makes you wonder if something wasn't right.

At least that's the view from this non-insider.

Like I predicted before this race, I think Ass has been juicing his horses with a lot less frequency lately. It's been awhile since any of his horses ran like they were possessed by demons, and that Curlin will probably look pretty mortal.

In my opinion, he's a very nice horse that was running juiced out of his mind for most of the last year to year and a half.