Willie's ride

[ShadowRoll]

Forgive me if some of this has already been covered in other threads. There's been so much chatter since the race yesterday that I haven't been able to keep up with it all, even though I've tried.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Willie gave our girl a great ride. Despite inheriting the lead, he managed to take our girl back and relax her enough to have something left for the stretch drive. I've seen jocks try this many times, and it doesn't appear to often work. With a lot of horses, it seems the heart goes out of them once they give up the lead.

The fact that Willie was able to do this with Sumwon is a testament to how much she trusts him. She did what he wanted and trusted that Willie would let her loose again when it was time to run. It's also a testament to Chuck that he has been able to teach this reformed hell-for-leather frontrunner how to rate. And it's a testament to Sumwon because she's obviously smart enough to learn all this.

Maybe Sumwon needed yesterday's race after the layoff or maybe Green Door is just that good (I'm thinking that GD must have run the best race of her life, though I haven't seen any figures), but I feel real good about the future.