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Originally Posted by RolloTomasi
Wasn't she merely a length away from Proud Spell for most of the backstretch, drafting in behind in the garden spot, much as a sharp-witted cyclist would?
Seriously, though, in terms of pace, I agree that she wasn't the beneficiary. By race setup I meant more that her stablemate, Little Belle, who is at least of listed stake calibur, was sent out to basically tease Proud Spell (perhaps baiting that one into dueling or a premature move to the lead). Meanwhile, Music Note could just stalk Proud Spell (her only real rival) and pounce when necessary. All this with the race contested at 10f, perhaps the biggest advantage any entrant in the race enjoyed.
Certainly she's not outclassed by Proud Spell and maybe, having been untested up to that point, she will be more "battle hardened" next time she locks horns with a comparable rival.
However, replaying the Alabama just now I did kind of overstate how easily she cruised up to Proud Spell at the 1/8th pole. Seems like she might have that other AP Indy flaw we've seen in some of his other horses (most notably AP Adventure). When the real running started around the far turn, Music Note got left about 2 lengths by Proud Spell despite being under a bit of a drive from Castellano. Only once they straightened up did it look like she would inhale Proud Spell. Perhaps that's what took some of the edge off her finish.
She might be, like Easy Goer, a Belmont horse.
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Again, I'm going to bypass your comments about all of AP Indy's flaws as a sire because I just don't know where you are coming from here. The Alabama was not MN's best race, IMO and in the opinion of her connections. In this race, she didn't cruise up as she normally (and willingly does - do not compare her to AP Adventure, who was no good) does. She had to work a bit. This was in part because her CCA apparently took something out of her (her workout at Greentree center in Saratoga wasn't that good and you'll note that I posted about that here at the time; also, read the Blood Horse's recap of the Gazelle. They wanted Javier to wrap up on the filly because he had let her run a huge race in the Oaks and that took some starch out of her in the Alabama).
I've never understood why MN or any horse gets penalized by fans for having some sort of "advantage" at a greater distance. I can understand if one horse is carring 10 lbs fewer than another, but in this case, any advantage MN has is genetic. In any case, if LB was supposed to be some sort of rabbit, she (or rather Maragh, her jock) did a lousy job. Instead of setting racehorse fractions (I'm not asking for blazing, just even ordinary), he decided to strangle LB and set trotting horse fractions.