I could find no such poll at that link.
However, I think it's pretty clear that the "race of the year" is either...
Curlin's Buckpasser like comeback after not getting his trip early and being left for dead to beat the Derby winner in the Preakness.
Or, Rags To Riches beating Curlin in a great Belmont stretch clash.
Perhaps the Street Sense over Any Given Saturday Tampa Derby would be a clear cut and distant 3rd.
For me, It's the Preakness.
The Belmont featured a painfully slow pace - one of the more bizarre tactical rides you'll ever see in Gomez rating Hard Spun off that slow pace - and the race really had an inconclusive feel to it from a post race analysis standpoint.
I know a lot of people thought R2R ran by far the best race - I think Cannon said she had everything but the guy who ran on the track to punch Artax on the Preakness undercard go against her - but her "trouble" in that race all seemed highly overrated to me. When you consider how laughably slow the pace was - the bad stumble at the start meant nothing as long as she didn't hurt herself in doing so. The wide trip on the turns was also greatly overrated - when you consider it was a slow paced race - and at Belmont Park, where skimming the rail isn't exactly a great advantage.
Her main rivals Curlin and Hard Spun both looked out of their game. To a much lesser extent, Curlin didn't look very comfortable down inside of traffic behind the crawl pace...and to a greater extent, Hard Spun had no chance from off the lead in a slow paced 12 furlong race.
|