A Lesson Learned

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Really?

So you think Steve Assmussen was lying to me when he told me this past Friday that he had really expected him to win the Derby?

What does that have to do with him being under-trained?

If you watch his workouts....he was pretty much restrained throughout in all of them I saw film of....obviously that is what I mean by being undertrained.

When he got this horse....like what, less than 100 days ago, he got a horse who'd just won his debut, in wire-to-wire fashion, sprinting in fast time.

Basically, through workouts, he's done a job of turning a horse with a milers pedigree and a good deal of natural speed, into a deep closing router...who's been quite flat in the early stages in each of his last two races.

If you watch the Preakness again, he had to be ridden along pretty decently at points through the early stages, and was under a hand ride before the 1/2 mile pole.

He was basically not asked to do any real running in his training....and I certainly don't see how anyone can assume he should be a tired horse based on the four starts he had....he certainly has never acted like a tired horse in any of those career starts...that's for sure.