Points Results 03.10.2018

[Plenilune]

Santa Anita R6 San Felipe S. G2

1 Bolt d'Oro
4 McKinzie
8 Kanthaka

Scratched: 6

Loved the dog fight down the stretch. Rivalries are exciting and it takes a tough dog to win that cavalry charge in the KY Derby. Interesting how we all had 4, 1 in the exacta but that dreaded DQ rose its ugly head. Do you agree with the final decision? The head-on didn't look very good, with Smith herding Bolt out two paths. Who knows, if Bolt is so great, would that really impede his progress? Well, tit for tat, as Bolt won that race at Los Al but was DQ'd for McK to win, and now it was turned around on McK versus Bolt. I'm just wondering if it's going to be a long shot at the end of the KY Derby road. More KY Derby preps to come!

RUFFIAN-333 takes it this week. Plenilune runs second. Joly B lands third. DonGuido nicely rounds out the super.

1 RUFFIAN-333 BAC 25 125
2 Plenilune-DC BAC 25 118
3 JolyB BAC 25 111
4 DonGuido BAC 25 95

6 Real Quiet BAC 25 85
6 cruzan200246 XXX 0 36

[JolyB]

Originally Posted by Plenilune

Do you agree with the final decision? The head-on didn't look very good, with Smith herding Bolt out two paths. Who knows, if Bolt is so great, would that really impede his progress?

I'm just wondering if it's going to be a long shot at the end of the KY Derby road.

I was surprised that the stewards appeared to ignore the bumping that occurred at the top of the stretch. Castellano had the entire track to work with, but chose to cut the corner closely and appeared to me to initiate contact with McK in the process. Had Bolt gone on to win, I would have thought that this contact would have been grounds for a DQ.

I would have let the outcome stand, treating the two separate infractions as offsetting penalties and give both jockeys fines or days for their infractions.

I'm looking to a rematch of these two horses, but may not see it until Churchill since Baffert might take McK the Oaklawn route for his final prep.

As to your second comment, we will certainly have a number of horses in the starting gate that qualified as longshots, and it is tough to find standouts. The San Felipe stretch drive was visually impressive, but they ran the mile in 1:36.18, while Justify ran his mile today under a hammerlock in 1:35.73. Of course, Justify has to stretch beyond a mile and run against stakes caliber horses and, most important, accrue the necessary qualifying points, all in his next race. That is a tall order for even a very talented horse.

[Plenilune]

I don't think the bumping at the turn was bad but Smith said it took his horse off balance. He also said at that point all bets were off, or something to that affect. So he was going to race ride, too.

I think McK should not have been DQ'd. It seemed a fair fight to me, both jockeys race rode their horses. It was a fight to the finish. Are things always fair? Not necessarily, yet the strong will overcome and move on.

I still wonder if the Ky Derby is going to be wild and a long shot will prevail. How about a win for Lukas this year?

[RUFFIAN]

SAN FELIPE

Now that I had a chance to watch the replay a few times...

I agree with the decision of the DQ

McKenzie clearly Came inward to make contact with Bolt - Twice