The blocking back

[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by moses

What I don’t get is this: It’s not like it was a huge surprise that Restoring Hope might do something like this. So none of the other horses/jockeys anticipated it and adjusted their strategy accordingly? Bravazo had enough position to run a suicide mission and press the pace but why would he do that? That style has failed him in all the big races.

The way I see it, the only horses RH really impacted were Tenfold (who got pinched between RH and NI at the beginning of the race) and Noble Indy, who may have only been in the race to try to press the pace. To the extent he impeded Tenfold, I’ve already mentioned in the “Tenfold” thread that it is extremely unlikely it made a difference for Justify. To the extent he impeded Noble Indy, it seems like a fair counterstrategy.

Javy said after the race that he didnt have enough to press the pace.
The bottom line is, there wasnt one horse that was fast enough the 3 TC races to stay with Justify and or soften him up for the rest of the field. The one horse that did stay with him was Promises Fulfilled who came back to run huge in the Woody Stephens. At the end of the day, the best horse won the TC.