Angara Rises To Superstar Status

[sumitas]

Her 2nd G1 win, the prestigious Diana S. raises her to the top of world class stardom, defeating a very tough field of accomplished runners.

[sumitas]

in a spectacular start to the meet, the biggest race and the biggest star on the international stage is Angara. Bill Mott and the connections thrust themselves to the very top of this meet with Angara.

[Rupert Pupkin]

I have a totally different take on it. I don't think Angara is nearly the same filly that she used to be. she doesn't move nearly as well as she used to coming down the stretch. I thought she was a very good filly at one time last year, but Biancone pretty much ran her into the ground by running her way too much. I think the race today ended up playing very weak. I don't think anybody ran well. I don't think Angara ran anything close to her best today. She beat Argentina by a nose. Argentina hasn't run a good race in this country. she is now 0 for 5 in this country. If a filly like Shining Energy(at her best) was in that race today, I think she would have won by open lengths.

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I have a totally different take on it. I don't think Angara is nearly the same filly that she used to be. she doesn't move nearly as well as she used to coming down the stretch. I thought she was a very good filly at one time last year, but Biancone pretty much ran her into the ground by running her way too much. I think the race today ended up playing very weak. I don't think anybody ran well. I don't think Angara ran anything close to her best today. She beat Argentina by a nose. Argentina hasn't run a good race in this country. she is now 0 for 5 in this country. If a filly like Shining Energy(at her best) was in that race today, I think she would have won by open lengths.

So you think that 11 starts in one year is too much? How did Biancone run her into the ground? I felt that she just cycled in and out of form last year and picked up some nice paychecks when they counted.

She made a lot of money last year, where do you fault Biancone for his management of her?

[TheSpyder]

What? I don't think its cycle or being run into the ground or that the horse is the best. If you listened to the trainer and as we all know the horse likes a soft surface much much better. When its soft, the horse runs its best race. Otherwise, it doesn't. What else do you need to know?

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by moodwalker

So you think that 11 starts in one year is too much? How did Biancone run her into the ground? I felt that she just cycled in and out of form last year and picked up some nice paychecks when they counted.

She made a lot of money last year, where do you fault Biancone for his management of her?

It wasn't just the number of races. I think that 11 races is a lot of races but if she was only running once a month then it wouldn't be so bad. He once brought her back in 11 days and then another time he brought her back on ony 2 weeks rest. Then another time he brought her back in 3 weeks. I couldn't believe it at the time. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. When you a really nice filly like that, there is no reason to be wheeling them back in 2 weeks.
He's actually been doing the opposite with Lady of Venice. He only runs her once every 2 months. I couldn't figure out if he was being conservative or if there is something wrong with her. It's not his style to be that conservative.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by moodwalker

So you think that 11 starts in one year is too much? How did Biancone run her into the ground? I felt that she just cycled in and out of form last year and picked up some nice paychecks when they counted.

She made a lot of money last year, where do you fault Biancone for his management of her?

To be even more specific about Biancone's handling of her last year, after she won an allowance race really impressively at Keeneland, he brought her back 11 days later in a 1 1/2 mile race. If you do something like that as a one-time deal and then give the horse a nice rest and give them plenty of time between races for the rest of the year, then you might be able to get away with it once. Instead of giving her a rest after bringing her back in 11 days, he ran her 25 days later. Apparently that still wasn't enough, he then brought her back 20 days later against the boys in the Manhattan. Then he finally gave her a little break but after his first race back he brought her back 2 weeks later. After that, he ran her against the boys again in the Man O' War. After getting beaten badly in that race, he brought her back 3 weeks later. It's not exactly a shocker that after all of that, she couldn't even come close to hitting the board in her last 3 races of the year.

[sumitas]

is it any wonder she is with Mott ? you make some good points.

[Scurlogue Champ]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

To be even more specific about Biancone's handling of her last year, after she won an allowance race really impressively at Keeneland, he brought her back 11 days later in a 1 1/2 mile race. If you do something like that as a one-time deal and then give the horse a nice rest and give them plenty of time between races for the rest of the year, then you might be able to get away with it once. Instead of giving her a rest after bringing her back in 11 days, he ran her 25 days later. Apparently that still wasn't enough, he then brought her back 20 days later against the boys in the Manhattan. Then he finally gave her a little break but after his first race back he brought her back 2 weeks later. After that, he ran her against the boys again in the Man O' War. After getting beaten badly in that race, he brought her back 3 weeks later. It's not exactly a shocker that after all of that, she couldn't even come close to hitting the board in her last 3 races of the year.

So you are asserting that if a horse is "a nice filly" they aren't capable of wheeling back like that? What about all of the "nice fillies" that do this all year in Australia?

Do you know if Angara was hurting, or sore? Maybe she was in good shape and the races didn't take much out of her.

Some horses can run numerous times in a preparation and be fine, unless you were there with Angara and Biancone, how would you know?

[GPK]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I have a totally different take on it. I don't think Angara is nearly the same filly that she used to be. she doesn't move nearly as well as she used to coming down the stretch. I thought she was a very good filly at one time last year, but Biancone pretty much ran her into the ground by running her way too much. I think the race today ended up playing very weak. I don't think anybody ran well. I don't think Angara ran anything close to her best today. She beat Argentina by a nose. Argentina hasn't run a good race in this country. she is now 0 for 5 in this country. If a filly like Shining Energy(at her best) was in that race today, I think she would have won by open lengths.

I'm a huge Shining Energy fan, but a win by Angara today proofs that she still has it. I love it when a horse like her guts out a win like that. Too many horses give it up, like Lady of Venice did today. Horses that know where the finish line is and do everything in their power to get there first are the types of horses I love to see run.

[Scav]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I have a totally different take on it. I don't think Angara is nearly the same filly that she used to be. she doesn't move nearly as well as she used to coming down the stretch. I thought she was a very good filly at one time last year, but Biancone pretty much ran her into the ground by running her way too much. I think the race today ended up playing very weak. I don't think anybody ran well. I don't think Angara ran anything close to her best today. She beat Argentina by a nose. Argentina hasn't run a good race in this country. she is now 0 for 5 in this country. If a filly like Shining Energy(at her best) was in that race today, I think she would have won by open lengths.

I agree, she wasn't NEARLY as fluid yesterday as she was in the Beverly D last year, Stevens had a choke hold on her until 220 yards in that race.

[jpops757]

Originally Posted by sumitas

Her 2nd G1 win, the prestigious Diana S. raises her to the top of world class stardom, defeating a very tough field of accomplished runners.

When Mott even questions her performance on anything other yeilding turf. Be careful going overboard on her. Very nice finish but Mott was going to scratch here untill the showers earlier. So much capping distance and pace, the turf condition of the turf seems to always be a minor factor with veryone.

She is great on a soft going, that doesn't make her great though. She is far from Ouija Board.

[Betsy]

I don't think so; Mott admitted she really can only run this well on soft turf.