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#1
08-26-2007, 07:47 AM
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#2
08-26-2007, 07:57 AM
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To the fan a Hard Spun-Street Sense battle would have been exciting but Grasshopper filled in nicely. I don't see Hard Spun digging in past 8f with anyone though. He is a miler, which breeders love, but he can't get the 10f comfortably, so they made the right decision.
He is now a 100K starting fee, and it won't go up or down even if he were to win the Classic. His pedigree and win in a grade 1 puts him right there with SS in the shed. 100K to start. His best shot would be the BC Mile on the dirt but they are not going to run against Discreet Cat.
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#3
08-26-2007, 08:19 AM
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I think we need to give Hooves a mulligan here. It was a late night post that sounds like it was made out of a little frustration. I think I know where he's coming from in the sense that it would have been more interesting to see him run in the Travers. Obviously it was a smart and in the long run a financially sound decision to run him in the Kings Bishop. It's a shame that the race turned into a two horse race pretty much the whole way around. The horse I used E Z Warrior did not get going until late. I also know that like myself, Hooves is not a chalk man as he has provided many of us on here some great picks. Remember Keeneland? Anyway, let's cut the man some slack.
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#4
08-26-2007, 08:44 AM
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The real knock on Hard Spun is how slow he ran the last 1/8th. Are the kidding thinking this horse could stay at 10f. He never has and he never will.
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#5
08-26-2007, 08:57 AM
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__________________
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all. Abraham Lincoln
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#6
08-26-2007, 08:59 AM
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#7
08-26-2007, 09:01 AM
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hmmmmmmmmmmmm...just dont like em...would of loved to see frankle win..i may have been out of line,.. delete at will............
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#8
08-26-2007, 09:04 AM
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[quote=hoovesupsideyourhead]lets look at the big picture... hard spun todays hat flopping favorite of the people .is a great horse.. he should have been battleing it out with street sence the whole time..but hes not of that class..hes been reduced to 7f.. pretty great.... yee haa larry..you gota real goodin ..[/QUOT
thats better..
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#9
08-26-2007, 09:26 AM
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"Also, did anyone see how apeshit Larry Jones went when someone knocked off his cowboy hat during the celebration with owners and friends in the grandstand. His horse finally won the elusive G1 and he looked like Lou Holtz when some kid stole the hat off his head during a post-game interview..... can't lose my favorite stetson"
that's a cowboy thing. you can take his girl but don't touch his hat.
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#10
08-27-2007, 08:10 AM
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Dead game
In all the triple crown races, or the Haskell, I did not lay one dollar on Hard Spun, as I liked others such as Street Sense, or Any Given Saturday. But...the Kings Bishop, this hard tryer had me out of my seat rooting for him coming down the lane. Especially after being headed and fighting so gamely....
Hard Spun ran a courageous race. I imagine as many heartbreaks he has had in the last couple races, having prior being passed late, it would of been easy to throw in the towel in this race. But he was dead game, after he was headed in the stretch. More than any other race, this race showed his true class. Absolute true class. A better race than the Travers. This horse never gave up. Don't count him out in the classic.
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#11
08-27-2007, 08:19 AM
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The one thing I think Hard Spun has shown in virtually every start of his is guts. He's definitely a game animal.
__________________
The world's foremost expert on virtually everything on the Redskins 2010 season: "Im going to go out on a limb here. I say they make the playoffs."
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#12
08-26-2007, 09:32 AM
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However the horse has something very special. Guts. And I am not so sure any of this years crop are special horses. Especially after what I witnessed in the Belmont. Jury is still out on all. I know we have one very good Filly that can compete with the best males. But thats about it. And I am sure Curlin, SS, AGS, or Rags would not hold up running right at 22.7, 44.2, 1:08.5 fractions and still hold up to win. So there is no question about the horses speed, I dont care what happened the last 1/16 or 1/8. Those were very tough conditions to run that type of race. Heat index over 100... and the heat index for horses is higher than it is for humans because of the size of their body and inability to efficiently remove heat. The effort was extraordinary.
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#13
08-26-2007, 10:35 AM
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You can't fault Hard Spun because he's not as effective going 10 furlongs. That's like faulting a sprinter because he can't go far.
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#14
08-26-2007, 10:51 AM
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He was 2nd in the Kentucky Derby, which is ten furlongs, and would not have lossed if Street Sense hadn't been allowed to pass 17 horses up the rail without getting stopped.
By the way, even after a stumble, Hard Spun was gaining on Street Sense in the last 100 yards of the Derby. He's only less effective going a Classic distance when he's NOT ALLOWED to lead due to incompetent rating tactics by his rider -- or horses like Flying First Class and XChanger setting an insane pace. In the King's Bishop, over a Saratoga track that was not that fast (Street Sense got a 109 Beyer for running a moderate 2:02.70) -- Hard Spun was pressing the pace setter through fractions of 21 and change and 44 1/5ths, while pulling against his rider.... If he can't fully relax when denied the lead, while up on a very hot pace, in a Grade 1 sprint race -- how is he supposed to see out a classic distance when denied the lead and pulling -- at distances much longer? Do people even realize that through a series of unlikely circumstances this horse WASN'T on the early in the Preakness, WASN'T on the early lead in the Belmont, and WASN'T on the early lead in the Haskell. Does anyone think a similar styled horse like Commentator was capable of doing anything at a route distance while denied the lead? When allowed to run off on a loose lead in the Whitney, Commentator defeated Horse of the Year Saint Liam in very fast time.
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#15
08-26-2007, 12:17 PM
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#16
08-26-2007, 12:27 PM
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These circumstances that cause him to be denied every time are called racing. If its happens every time he routes can you really attribute it to special circumstances, or is it more likely that it will be hard for Hard Spun to find a GR1 route race wherein he is handed an uncontested lead in moderate fractions. To me that is the more unlikely circumstance.
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#17
08-26-2007, 02:30 PM
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So, after the stumble, had Pino not put Hard Spun to stout restraint, he would have found himself in a bitter head-to-head speed duel. Hard Spun got loose in the Kentucky Derby -- in a race over-flowing with speed horses -- he is fast enough to get loose in virtually all Grade 1 route races. However, his connections have been afraid to use his only real weapon (his natural speed) since the Derby. They decided they had to use it in the King's Bishop...because Hard Spun has never had dirt kicked in his face before, and horses often struggle from the off-the-pace when expieriencing that for the first time. At this time of the year, all these silly one-dimensional sprinter/milers like Flying First Class and Cable Boy have proven they aren't Grade 1 routers -- and the pace of these big races often start to get much slower.
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#18
08-27-2007, 07:38 AM
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Hybrid Mode
