Who was the chestnut? I believe he was that was flying on the outside when they were coming down the stretch? Caught my eye, he was suddenly like a rocket flying!
Oh well, gorgeous is as gorgeous does.
It’s always nice to see a homebred win.
WoW wasn’t paying attention, just before the little bump, and he let the bump get to him.
Edit: We can afford some WoW dressage horses now? :lol:
Not only a homebred for Tracy Farmer, but also a horse he bought back for 50K at the Keeneland September Sale. I kinda love that.
I believe that was Master Fencer! He really was flying!
WoW looked to me like he was already flattening out before the bump. The Derby and Preakness took a lot out of him.
Laurie, I guess I said it wrong, but that’s what I meant. But after the bump, he just said “Heck with this! I’m done.”
I caught the post race interview Brittany Eurton did with Mark Casse.
He said he thought War Of Will just didn’t look in the game today. Thought that even before the field hit the front stretch. Said when he saw War Of Will looking “flat” (forget the word he used) then he started riding Sir Winston
While I was disappointed that Master Fencer didn’t finish as well as I’d hope, he had a wicked closing kick for sure.
I would agree at this point that the best 3YO will be determined by the races between now and BC. We know there is a good open field but no, IMO, single standout.
On to the Travers and Haskell Invitational.
As for the Met Mile… what a great race. Mitole takes it over McKenzie who didn’t have the best of trips. Thunder Snow just didn’t have the closing gas to catch Mitole.
By far the race of the day was Guarana’s Acorn win. Wow is she something else.
My imagination or did Casse look pretty sour in the post-race interview at first, maybe unhappy about WOW, then sort of pull it together, and praise Sir Winston and thank his owners?
Reading a little too much into that expression methinks.
Sour??? Can we just not keep trying to vilify people based on the fleeting glimpses we get of them on tv? I imagine he’d rather be watching how his horses jog back and make sure they are both OK rather than doing an interview. Good grief, after the Preakness someone thought his wife looked unhappy. They are people, not celebrities used to being in front of a camera all the time.
My bad–profuse apologies.
These guys have more then just a couple of weekend Stakes horses in their barns and have horses running in more then just the Saturday feature race. . And they get up at 4am.
The Belmont didn’t set up as expected, rather modest fractions with the early leader darn near controlling the whole thing, kind of a riders race. Kind of a surprise but not like it never happened before. The Haskell should be interesting after these get a little break and reboot.
That little bump was into Tacitus, who finished second by a wee bit.
If I were a fellow jockey I would in the future keep my eyes open.
Flame suit on!
I wish Master Fencer would stay in the states long term. That horse has a end-of race kick like nothing I have ever seen. He did the same thing in the Derby after running far, far in the back of the pack. Nothing against his Japanese connections who have done a fabulous job with him, but he has always struggled with his lead changes (Julien was trying to teach him during his regular works) and he is just now getting accustomed to north American racing.
This is a horse who ran clockwise in Japan, as well, and came to America to run the opposite way! Incredible what he has done in about 8 weeks time.
But to finish 5th and 6th in 2 of the top 3 American classics is an amazing feat and add into all of the training he has had to take up in 8 weeks and the travel. They did right by him getting him here about 2 weeks prior to the Derby so he had plenty of time to acclimate. The connections of Thunder Snow should take note.
Unfortunately Master Fencer is getting on a plane on Thursday and returning to Japan. Not sure we will ever see him again so best wish to Master Fencer
It doesn’t get seen by the tote either.
Yes, the kick isn’t converting to the kind of results to justify continuing on that level. Would did think that being over here since before the KD would be sufficient time to school the lead changes that are keeping him from finishing higher…or maybe he’s not fast enough long enough for the classic distances against this level of competition. The Europeans seem to adapt to turning left pretty well in that time frame.
MF is a nice enough horse just not against these at these distances.
He is a plodder - not quite enough turn of foot to keep him close enough to the pace catch them at the end. He only passes the ones that get tired.