the mud factor
 

Someone at the golf course told me they heard on tv last night that when Gen Qtrs came back from the race his nostrils were filled with mud making it hard for him to breath, other horses may have encountered the same issue and were not able to fully breath

In a 20 horse field with all these horse close together and mud flying in all directions --- is is conceivable that Calvin just sat back and stayed away and simply had a horse in the end with no mud in his eyes or nostrils? he had the only animal that was relativly clean and could fully breath