The Tin Man
 

A 8 yo Bad boy today.

Slow first half...man did he have a choppy stride on the backstretch.
Stole the show when asked.
Good for him. Not a pretty run...but effective.

I thought he was not only the best horse in the race but he looked like the only speed in the race. I thought he should have been the favorite.

Pace
 

Pace Makes The Race
Was It Any More True Than Today....

Go Old Boy Go

Yes when you saw the first half in 50- you knew that he had a big chance. Give him credit for the win because some of those horses have a good turn of foot and Nobody made much ground on him in the lane.

You mean a horse from the minor leagues(per Oracle) of SOCAL takes the Arlington Million?

Nice, nice win. Good for the old guy...

Clearly the best today.

that was fun cheering on the old guy, showed his rump to some classy horses today...

I had him at 7-1 in the fair line I posted here. But I didn't give him enough credit for the lack of pace in the race. (Easy to say in retrospect). I was able to bet him anyway, because I actually got 9-1 and 10-1 on two bets at Tradesports.com. Whoever was offering those odds must have believed the ML. I also had him in the matchup vs Better Talk Now at Pinny.

--Dunbar

the son of Affirmed ran like his old man.

Wow, you got a great price. Shopping around really paid off for you.

How could you see his stride going down the backstretch? I couldn't see his stride going down the backstretch but I could see it when they passed the stands the first time and I could see it when he came down the stetch the final time. He was moving great. I highly doubt that he wasn't moving well going down the backstretch.

He doesn't have a really strong stride but he has a great way of moving. There is nothing choppy about his stride.

Well I have to give a lot of credit to the horse and connections for winning this race. I think he wasn't given enough credit by Frankel/Prado and Pletcher/Velazquez before the race. Edgar was quite content to sit open lengths off him in that crawling time and didn't even get after his mount on the turn, he thought he had it made. They ran the last 1/4 in 22:3 so you could forget about anyone closing into that pace and winning. I still don't know if Cacique is better than English Channel or vice versa. English was rank early and Johnny was determined to wrangle him back. He ran wide and finished evenly. Guess we get yet another rematch of those two in the Turf Classic.

Not only was nobody going to catch him, nobody was even going to gain on him. He's the only horse in there that could run his last quarter in :22 3/5 on that turf course. That's why he was actually drawing away.

This is exactly why I like the Tin Man types. You rest on your arse (50 sec at 4 f????) and you get beat. He will not allow what appears to be a huge rush at the end if let loose on soft fractions.

These are not European fairways, these are American courses with turns. And some of the Euros experience a great deal of difficulty with turns as it takes a tremendous amount of energy out of a horse because a horse ACCELERATES (a change in speed, direction or both) on turns... yes thats right, it requires more energy to constantly change directions on turns than it takes running straight ahead. I think this is vastly overlooked. ANd I think it is why some of Europes best do not come here. They are at a big disadvantage. Yes they go up and they go down but the majority of those courses are very gentle turns. ON some US turf courses up to 40% of the time spent racing is turning on a very small effective radius compared to Euro courses... and that is very, very hard on a horse.

The Euros that come over here and whup our butts should be given the highest reguard as they really have shown incredible athletic ability winning on such diff type courses. Also turning in a diff. direction, which has been discussed many times.

i found it interesting the comment about euro success in the million...7 of 23 winners before today. so now it means 7 of 24...less than a third. is that what people consider euro domination?

True Z. But how much of the Million field do they make up? Today there where a good number of Euros. I guess because they sent the 2nd and third teams. I do not have the numbers. I would be interested to know sense the inception of the Million what % of the runners have been Euro. Also, it is only a million dollars. That used to be a big deal, but not as much anymore. They can stay at home or concentrate a bigger Asian or Dubai purses.

I kinda have Oras idea. Did everyone think that the TIN MAN was BTNs rabbit? Noone showed any respect at all let him get away with a lead in1:15 and the race was over. Surely someone could recognize the slow pace and that this wasnt "cheap" speed in the lead. GREAT job by the old man. Some very questionable deciisions out on the course. Maybe the jockeys just had a ticket to ride and let the horse be the brains.

Pops it was extremely arrogant of Prado/Frankel and Johnny V/Pletcher to took the tactics they took. Trust me, both of those jocks do their pre race homework as do the trainers they ride for. Johhny, Edgar, Todd, and Frankel are very astute at asessing a race beforehand and handicapping how it should flow.
Prado treated that horse(The Tin Man) like he was a reformed cheap claimer that he could reel in at any time. 1:15? Are you kidding me? I don't want to knock the Tin Man in any way, shape, or form. Hes a gutsy warrior!!! But I'm not so sure that if Edgar or Johnny don't at least stay lapped onto him that they don't run him down. They got what they deserved. They treated a talented old game horse like a horse they could just take at any time, and they paid for it!!! Kudos to Honu, a board member here who I believe is the Tin man's exercise rider on a job done extremely well!!! Without her morning work on this horse there wouldn't be such success in the afternoon!!

like i've said before here and elsewhere (and was gratified to hear it from one of the announcers today) that many of the euros who come over are looking for a firm turf course(they may not be bad or lesser, just can't find their ground), one that isn't often found in their own backyard. or maybe some are looking to beat up on the 'lesser' u.s. horses. take sulamani for instance a few years ago. it's not his best distance, but the connections felt he was so superior to our horses that he'd win anyway. whoops! yeah, the million has slipped in recent years regarding purse money, but it's still a good stepping stone for euros looking to make a mark here, or prep for the bc race (why not ship now and get them a couple u.s. races under their belt, and get used to the lasix they grab as soon as they clear customs, so much for euro snobbery about our drugged horses). also, by this time of year, they must be pretty clear what horses over there suit the racing there, and which don't. some come here and find glory, some don't. but i don't think the gap between our turfers and theirs is so great as what was once felt...seems there is a greater appreciation here these days for turf horses, and maybe not as many are being snapped up at auction to go overseas, they're staying here now.

the tin man had more class than they gave him credit for. once again a horse loses because his handlers underrate the competition.

I have all the respect in the world in the conections of the top horses that were running but how can they all have a brain fart in this instance? Mandella dosent just run a horse yo be flashy. He goes for the gusto. I cant downgrade EC or Frankles horse for this race. Tin Man won the race they didnt lose it. That all said I think it was a human error that cpmpromised Frankles and Pletchers horses.

also, it was a bad break for the outside horses, i believe it was the eventual last place horse who veered wide right at the start, compromised the start for several...and of course you're not going to really push your horse up to the front after that, just let them go easy, so the tin man didn't get as much pressure early on as he may have otherwise....

but yeah, he won it fair and square. i'd imagine several riders thought the old guy would back up to them. bad enough being wrong without being wrong in front of the stands, and on t.v.

There's no chance that Cacique or EC would have beaten The Tin Man even if the pace was faster. The Tin Man does not need to run the half in :50 to win. That made his job easier but I think he could have gone :48 3/5 and still won. He doesn't even need the lead to win. In the San Marcos at Santa Anita, they went the half in :47 1/5. The Tin Man sat 1 1/2 lengths off the lead and won the race race pretty easily. You know who he beat that day? He beat Milk It Mick. Milk It Milk came back in his next race and barely lost to English Channel and Cacique. Milk It Milk had a lot of trouble that day too. He had nowhere to run the final 1/16th of a mile. He may have actually beaten Cacique with a clean trip that day. It would have deinfitely been a photo.

So The Tin Man beat Milk It Mick a lot easier than Cacique did and that was even when The Tin Man rated in 2nd off a :47 1/5 half.

Cacique and EC were not going to beat The Tin Man no matter what today. Letting him run the half in :50, made it much easier on him but hey weren't going to beat him any way. Neither one of them were closing any ground. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have expected them to be closing too much ground with those fractions. However, I would have expected them to close a little bit. EC was actually losing ground in the stretch. Cacique was actually losing ground too. If you watch the replay, you will see that Cacique was actually within a length of The Tin Man at the head of the stretch. By the time they got to the 1/16th pole, The Tin Man had pulled away by 3 lengths. You can't use the pace as an excuse when your horses are losing ground in the stretch. That's ridiculous.

I want to second the above post. Tin Man doesn't need to loaf on the lead to win, especially not at his favorite distance of 10f. He was my pick in all of the contests yesterday; lone speed, weight-for-age, best distance, better than ever since return - 11/2 was a gift.

Where are all you Ace people? A hint for the future - form at the distance and current form matter. And I love Phoenix Reach but a race of this sort off of such a long layoff was an absurd place to put him. Nice little listed race at York would have made much more sense.

Respect due to R. Pupkin for calling this one perfectly and then, rather than gloating, taking the very nice score in stride.

Thats what winners do....they act like they've been there before and they'll be there again.

Congrats. and keep 'em coming.

Props to Mandella, one of my favorite trainers, and Rupert for being so damn opinionated on the outcome of this race.

I was originally going to bet Better Talk Now and Ace, used them both heavily in the national pick 4, but I changed my mind when it actually came time to bet this race and I was in the proverbial hole. Ended up making a nice size win bet on the Ole Tin Man and was thrilled to see a ride from Espinoza that Kent Desormeaux should watch over and over and learn from.

Great win by a horse I would have rooted for even if I didnt have a bet on.
These are so few and far between today. Horses like this give you goose bumps.

you simply can't let a horse of The Tin Man's caliber set those fractions. Big congratulations to the Old Fella and his connections. Good to see an old horse show he still has what it takes.

Great call Rupert...

I think you can use the fact that racing a minimum of 3 wide the whole way around vs right on the rail....how many lengths does that equate to in a race of that distance?

I cant say I was surprised EC got that sort of trip. I think Pletcher was bluffing when he said he was okay with that post. At the very least he needed some others to put pace pressure on Tin Man, and that obviously did not happen. I dont think anyone was beating him anyways, he looked fit for a fight on the track before the race. I got on him.

The only thing wrong with the post was the problem comming out of the gate. With the lack of early pace, the wide post could and was overcome. EC had perfect posotion except noone understood the 1:15 and noone showed THE TIN MAN any respect. He was actually bet down by the public but the compition showed no respect.