Mach Ride
 

dayum...

Drew off easily...Nice performance

Odd race...

Horse looked great, he figured to be the winner

Local horses run 1-2-4, quirky surface.

Mach Ride cooked Fab Strike into the ground and kept on running. Is MR a threat in the BC sprint?? After todays race, my answer would be YES.

No doubt the winner ran huge.

Thats the first time strikes been looked in the eye for a half and he did what a lot of good horses do. Just quit. Hell learn, hes a very nice horse but doesnt have the running style to be a factor in the BCS

looked like he almost bit it out of the gate. nice recovery.

One other thing...Calder is a very tiring track. You cant gallop a horse into Calder and expect to win. Strike has always been worked sparingly, and although he was fit enough to win over rockhard Churchill strip, and a wet sealed Mountaineer, that doesnt translate to running at Calder. Alot of horses simply cant handle Calders surface and he sure seemed to have a problem with it

I don't know about anyone else but I'm inclined to question the validity of the race and would be willing to give both Smokey and Fab excuses.

Its tough to go into Calder and beat the horses that are always running over that surface, its very different than CHD, Mountaineer, and poly in Smokeys case. Mach ride had to figure just because thats his home track, not to mention the hrose he drilled in the Champali is a REAL nice horse.

Same here. Mach Ride is the real deal, though.

I wouldn't give them excuses today. What happened to FS was what happened to a lot of them when they get eyeballed. As The Bid mentioned, Mach Ride had the home advantage. Some say that a work or breeze over the Calder surface beforehand helps but I don't agree. I think it takes actual racing over it and continued racing and training over it. Smokey and Fabulous could probably come in there again next month and the same thing would happen. Now, if Calder was their home, then I think they'd beat Mach Ride. I thought they had the class to overcome the advantage but apparently not. Should have known better. Calder horses are extremely fit horses.

Its a very cuppy surface.

I saw Fabulous Strike run down at Mountaineer and thats not a rundown track, I didnt anticipate him running a good race today. Infact I figured hed run right off the board, and probably beat himself up pretty good

THAT'S THE EXCUSE, THAT IT WAS CALDER. Next race, another track, they have a good chance of getting back to form.

OK if that's how u see it. I never use the track as an excuse because all of the horses have to run over the same one. If u are saying that the track is the excuse, then I don't think u can say they were OFF form today because we don't know what their form would normally be like at Calder. Maybe today was how they would normally run there. If I was going to say they just didn't handle the track well, I would cite that as a reason for Smokey not running well but not for Strike. That pace scenario had more to do with his race than the track, IMO.

That totally contradicts the point you were just making about how much of an advantage it is to train and race at CRC regularly.

Huh? What difference does it make what their form would normally be like at Calder? Are they going to run there again any time soon?

That's fair, but I still say it's a throwout for both horses.

I believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Its true that Calder is not an easy place to ship into and win sprinting. Sure its the track but I also think that it has to do with things like temperature. Its an advantage to train on the actual racing surface and in the same climate.

however I don't think you can totally dismiss the performances either. The two favorites are not as bad as they appeared to be today, but they're probably not head and shoulders better than everyone else either, as their odds today would imply.

I agree 100%. It's a locals track, always has been. Just look at the winners of the races in the past Summit of Speeds...

Anybody need a refresher on Dubai Escapade running off the board even though she was clearly the best filly sprinter in America last year?

I have always found Calder to be a wierd kind of track as far as surface. And when I do play there I like to play the longshot, hometrack horses just for that fact.