Quote:
Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
What holes can you pick in that performance?
Was it that he didn't carry enough weight? (a mere 133lbs giving 12 away to a pair of last-out Derby winners)
Was it that he didn't run fast enough? (He shattered the course record and ran 60 Beyer points faster than a 3yo male 3-time winner at the same distance the very next race)
Was it that he didn't beat quality competition? (obviously he did - and the 4 other Group 1 winners in the race he beat were all in sharp recent form.)
The only slightest thing I can say about his performance that isn't glowing is that the two Derby winners did kind of eye-ball each other a bit early on in the race and he was behind them in a perfect targeting spot. Basically, he had a nice early position. That's the only knock I see... and few look harder for knocks than I do.
Brock - I did a whole lot of cringing last year reading all that brutal nonsense about Sea The Stars being possibly the best horse ever.
He won the Arc by 2 lengths over Youmzain carrying 9lbs less than Youmzain. Youmzain's form is as fine as ever and he was 3rd by 14+ lengths with a good trip yesterday.
Sea The Stars other celebrated wins came by just a length or so at the expense of Rip Van Winkle and Mastercraftsman ... about the only two European horses to under perform their odds on Breeders Cup Day over the last two years. They gave him a 138 when he beat Fame And Glory by 2.5 lengths .. and FaG was soundly beaten in his next two races.
Sea The Stars had a very royal pedigree, he always fired, he made the best of the fact that European racing wildly favors 3-year-olds over older horses with the extreme weight spreads they impose against olders, but he never delivered a performance even remotely like the one whatever his name is did yesterday.
By the way ... in my book, Fame and Glory has the 2nd greatest initals ever for an outstanding horse. Slightly behind Heritage of Gold. HoG and FaG
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OK my attempt to pick holes in the form - before I do it, Ill say looking back it was a fantastic performance and seeing Timeform gave him 142, my mark looks rather stingy - I guess I dont rate Cape Blanco et al as high as the professionals.
Weight isnt an issue for me - its WFA so thats what older horses are supposed to carry against 3yos at this time of year, he'll give 8 pounds to these guys in Paris in October.
The time isnt as big a deal as you make it to be - the course in Ascot is only 5 or so years old and they are constantly breaking track records at every distance - there isnt that many top quality 12f races at Ascot (i can only think of 2, the King George and the Harwicke - Harbinger won both!). I havent got the chance to watch the race after the King George but the comments are that it was a steady early pace, unlike the feature.
The way I saw the race beforehand was I hated all the 3yos in the race - Workforce's derby was (excuse my hyperbole) a big farce of a race - everything just didnt seem right. They smashed the record time despite not going that quickly, I dont buy it at all, my guess is they did something with the railings which made the track shorter than usual.
Cape Blanco is an OK horse but not a superstar - yeah he won the Irish Derby but it was a far from vintage race - which seemed to prove to me that this crop of 3yos are well below average.
Youmzain got hammered in this race 2 years ago by Duke of Marmalade. He is a ridiculously quirky horse that obviously likes the set up he gets in the Arc.
Daryakana looks like countless other older fillies who were top class at 3 but have struggled for form at 4.
The disappointing thing about Sea The Stars was he never won by much - he just toyed with his opponents. I do agree that his Irish Champion Stakes win over FAG
was overrated. Harbinger is a much bigger stronger horse (who won his seasonal debut over 13f) and is the type of horse to ground others into submission and win by distances like we saw yesterday.
I do feel im being overly negative here when we saw a brilliant performance but Im yet to be convinced that he is a better racehorse than Shergar, Dancing Brave, Dubai Millennium and Sea The Stars..