If the weather cooperates, the CD strip could be as speed-kindly as it was over the weekend. Not speed favoring, just kinder to speed types than it is when it is deep and holding.
Actually, it is just as likely that the layout of the Belmont strip bothered Lava Man as anything else. The quarter-turn, straight, long turn, straight for 10f at Belmont is quite different from the straight-turn-straight-turn-straight at SA, Dmr,Hol, or CD. Calls for different types of effort at different times in the race.
In Spanish-spreaking South America generally, the Triple Crown consists of the Polla de Potrillos (1600m, c8f), the Gran Premio Jockey Club (2000m,c10f) and the Gran Premio Nacional (2400m,12f), the last of which is considered that country's Derby. At the Maronas (there is a tilde over the n) track in Uruguay, these are all run on dirt.
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