Mine That Bird

[CSC]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

I never said the Travers was a foregone conclusion, not in any way, shape or form. I am certainly willing to listen to anybody who wants to bet against her, but excuses like, she might get into trouble, her jockey might be intimidated, or she might race in traffic are kind of a waste of time in my opinion.

NT

Just to clarify, I didn't mean Borel would be intimdated, which would be a ridiculous statement. Anyone who has seen Calvin ride knows he is the anthesisis of Mike Smith. What I mean't is she is obviously the horse most if not all the Jockies are watching and it wouldn't be a stretch if she is the marked horse in the field, an example of this happening was what happened to Cigar when Nakatani put Dramatic Gold into the race to beat him, which is certainly a possibilty next Saturday if we get what we all want to see.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by CSC

Just to clarify, I didn't mean Borel would be intimdated, which would be a ridiculous statement. Anyone who has seen Calvin ride knows he is the anthesis of Mike Smith. What I mean't is she is obviously the horse most if not all the Jockies are watching and it wouldn't be a stretch if she is the marked horse in the field, an example of this happening was what happened to Cigar when Nakatani put Dramatic Gold into the race to beat him, which is certainly a possibilty next Saturday if we get what we all want to see.

I understand and certainly concur that this is a valid point.

I found Bailey's insight about Cigar in his interview on TVG Legends a couple of years ago really interesting. When talking about the Pacific Classic Bailey admitted that he asked Cigar to do something even he was not capable of, which was to hook Siphon and stay on.

The funny thing about that, which I thought of right away, was that did Bailey really think Cigar was not capable of running down Siphon simply because Geri was unable to in the Hollywood Gold Cup? Did Bailey think that little of him? Not that Siphon was bad but it made you wonder what type of connection they had.

On the other hand, I think Borel knows exactly what Rachel's capable of and the thing about her is that she's gone about her business in a more impressive day with each passing start. She has shown such an incredible new dimension in her last two starts by rating kindly and going exactly when she was asked.

NT

[CSC]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

I understand and certainly concur that this is a valid point.

I found Bailey's insight about Cigar in his interview on TVG Legends a couple of years ago really interesting. When talking about the Pacific Classic Bailey admitted that he asked Cigar to do something even he was not capable of, which was to hook Siphon and stay on.

The funny thing about that, which I thought of right away, was that did Bailey really think Cigar was not capable of running down Siphon simply because Geri was unable to in the Hollywood Gold Cup? Did Bailey think that little of him? Not that Siphon was bad but it made you wonder what type of connection they had.

NT

I remembering watching that at the OTB and my first reaction was Bailey made the right move, I read his book also and I thought he was simply protecting Cigar to no fault of his. Obviously he loves this horse but being a Cigar admirer, I firmly believed he lost a step in 96. He was a great horse though, as honest as the higher power has ever made.