I also am thinking exactly like Rupert, really nothing to add to his comments. The horse was not at 100% fitness but he had a prep race and is obviously much better than that. The reason I immediately felt something was wrong was because he was empty on the turn. A horse of his caliber is not going to be that empty on the turn while stalking a moderate pace. Its not like he was pushing an extremely fast pace and just chucked it.
I'm not so sure that something eas bothering him beforehand though. All clocker accounts I had were that he was working and going extremely well. Noone had him going sore or lame. In addition, like Eurobounce has said, in Kentucky my clocker said he was heavy and not at all fit but up here prior to the race he had really turned into a physical beast. My clocker said he looked extremely good and was a block of muscle who looked great from every aspect.
I'm also puzzled about the juice accusations towards Pletcher in such mass quantities. You know I'm not stupid about suspecting certain people of messing around. In Todd's case I just have to wonder what the accusers are seeing that I am not. On Saturday he went 0-fer again and had the last place finisher in the test(as the favorite no less), a bad loss in Flower Alley to go with a 3rd by West Virginia, a third by a firster, and a 2nd bya miaden(that he should have won) on the grass. He was at least 0-5 and got blaned wednesday-friday as well. He won one on Sunday with a short priced allowance runner and won both the Matchmaker and the Haskell but lost with a short priced horse in an allowance race at monmouth as well(horse was named Spring at Last and he was just awful). If todd is doing so much monkeying pleease explain to me why his percentage up here and down below is the same or lower than it has been all year? Juicers tend to realy get on rolls and win with everything in sight. Todd is sending out a lot of horses who fit from a figure perspective but just aren't firing, yet he is winning some races. It simply can't be both ways. Does he have the most expensive vet work and shoeing and feed and exercise riders that money can buy? Yes. Hes able to do this due to the money his owners have and the massive money making operation he has. But i simply don't see any miracles out of his barn. He spots horses as well as anyone alive and quite frankly hes losing more than his share right now with well spotted horses. If hes working miracles someone needs to clue me in on what they are because quite frankly I pay attention as well as anyone and I'm kind of scratching my head wondering where these miracles are that I am not seeing.