Tim it was the horses 3rd race in a very short time period and Todd would never have attempted it if it weren't for the fact that you only get one shot to run a Canadian bred three year old in that kind of race.
The horse was just short. You will notice that he put away everyone who tried to run with him but 3 races in 5 weeks is just not managable. he ran like a horse who was suffering the effects of that gruleing schedule and was attempting to run a mile and a quarter in just his 3rd start. I don't know what else Johnny could have done. The horse was very keyed up and to simply strangle him wouldn't have helped.