Monday figs..
 

Kantharos 90

Tahitian Warrior 101

I wonder if the plan is to stretch Tahitian Warrior out after today. There's no way they're running him back in 12 days and there are no more 3YO sprints coming up, so a race like the Super Derby would fit him very well. The folks at Godolphin were very happy with everything at LaD last year so I hope it's in their plans.

NT

Am I the only one not head over heels for Kantharos? Yeah, he's got a few blowout wins, but the two-year-old colts he's faced look pretty uninspiring so far.

Variant split.

This certainly felt like a day where the 2nd and 3rd were run over a completely different track than the 7th-9th.

NT

I think he sucks, kinda why I wasted money on Rick today.
Im glad we see eye to eye on this.

You mean that Phipps first time starter who clunked up 3rd won't be in the Hopeful?

Yeah - it's still hard to trust figures from days like this. You can always review them after the fact in the months ahead.

Since he's a gelding and Graded Stakes wins don't matter - they probably go in the Smarty Jones next I would think. Mile and 70 yards for a 300K purse - ungraded stakes race.

Hard to imagine a much easier spot to try stretching out and still getting paid.

Notice how balls influence most every decision trainers make?

B A T coming to the Hopeful. Now that I'm excited about

Yup, another great one from a good looking crop so far.

Sucks? What exactly are your expectations of a 2yo colt if you think his last two races indicate a horse who "sucks?"
I think he's been pretty impressive so far, and appears to be improving with every start. Bad starts in his last two have had no impact on his ability to crush his opposition. Granted, the competition wasn't exactly stellar, but he did what a good colt is supposed to do when facing that sort.
It is impossible to know if he will continue to improve, but I see no reason why he shouldn't, and I also see no reason why he couldn't be even better when stretched out to 7f+ later in the year. I realize its easy to say about a horse with three big margins of victory, but I like his prospects for a good fall campaign quite a bit.

If he was trained by Rick or the GOAT there would be about 3 threads about him being next years KY Derby winner.

I've been very impressed. Let's be honest, it's a lot more likely he'll be a flash in the pan than a solid 3 year old. But he's been finishing up really well. It should be interesting to see how far he wants to go.

If you compare where we're at this year with this point last year this crop looks much better.

The Bashford Manor/Sanford winner Backtalk looked like a sprinter through and through. D'Funnybone beat up on a hopelessly bad Saratoga Special field and had the look of a sprinter himself. Worstcasescenario won a stirring rendition of the Adirondack as a 17-1 outsider.

There were very few interesting maiden winners at all last year, other than Dublin (we know how that turned out) and Discreetly Mine, who didn't win until Alabama day last year.

Everyone can beat up on Kantharos all they want. The only thing I'd like to see him do in the near future is face a top horse. That will happen in time.

NT

Tough to say who's a sprinter and who's not before they even go seven furlongs. And you'd have to split some serious hairs to call today's field better than the one D' Funnybone beat. Position Limit looks like a nice filly, but Hot Dixie Chick looked even better last year. Are we really hanging our hats on Stay Thirsty and Maybesomaybenot? Color me unimpressed.

You have a terrible opinion.

And grass is green.

Someone never heard of Kentucky Blues Grass.







Just thayin'.