Belmont angle

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by horseofcourse

When you've got a one run closer, pace and jockey discussions will always come more into play. MTB did not fade late in the Derby or Preakness. He did in the Sunland Derby and Belmont Stakes. Why? I think he lost the Preakness simply because he was running against a much better horse than he faced in the Derby...no other reason. The ride was text book for the most part. Deep closers are 9 times out of 10 always going to have to go wide at some point. I thought Bailey's description stating MTB wins the Preakness if Borel's on him was ludicrous. Yesterday could very well have been a case of the horse being amped up much more than usual as Woolley stated and he didn't handle the detention barn and perhaps Borel is correct that if he waited any longer, the horse would have started to fight him. I honestly don't know. All I know is that looking at the numbers and fractions run in the race, his internal fractions fried him. Whether that was jockey aided, I honestly don't know. I am taking the position that it was.

It all comes down to expectation. Let's take the result and then go back and explain how the result could have been different only if this or that had happened.

Was Borel's ride poor? If it was poor then it was a poor ride even if MTB wins.Same with his ride on Rachel. Ifher diminishing lead in the Preakness turned out to be a defeat there would have been second guessing as to why he didn't let Big Drama go on then make his move at the perfect time.

So that brings me to your opinion that he simply lost to a better horse in the Preakness which I happen to agree with.Summer Bird was the best horse in the Belmont yet the thought that he was the best horse isn't the talk today as much as the fact that Borel moved too soon with MTB.

After the Derby the majority opinion was that it was a fluky win . Yesterday he got a questionable ride.If Summer Bird wins the Travers we can go back to yesterday and realize that it wasn't so much that Borel moved too early but that he was beaten by a horse coming into his own.


Mine That Bird is no Secretariat but he just needed to be slightly better than he is to have had the stamina after making the run he made around the turn.

I'll concede that the internal fractions may have contributed but I will never believe he lost the race solely because of it.