Remembering Tampa Bay (Derby)

A great friend of horse racing died on Belmont Day. Maybe my post should be a bit more muted out of respect for Jim McKay. I'll leave it as it was before that thought.
Is this horse on steroids or is the light hitting at just the right angles to show muscles popping out of D'Tara's ears? Which makes me more unhappy, Big Brown losing the TC or Nick Zito finishing 1st and 3rd? I'm trying to decide.

The call came about 5:40 p.m. our time as I was filing some paperwork in the office from my mother Margo. "What happened to Big Brown?".

Put it up front that I've rarely been more wrong, see my last post. I never handicapped the race. Had I done so and watched the Barbaro Stakes from Preakness Day (which I did after the Belmont) D'Tara could be identified as a really good horse. And he's by Tiznow. Did he go off at 39-1 because he's trained by Zito or was it something else?

Nevertheless, this Belmont was done in :12.44s, a time that would hardly win a lot of allowance races. Consider this sour grapes, but if I were unable to beat Nick Zito in the Belmont I'd hang up the spurs. This was a truly pitifully trained field to get this result.

I am amazed again by the inexplicable. How's a horse look this good at 1.5 miles off of one 4f breeze 8 days out in :49.3 since May 17? I consider this nearly impossible. Has to be the under the radar stuff, right? Was Zito perhaps doing a lot of two minute galloping. I've never seen him do that before, but, maybe. Does Zito merely understand how to be competitive in the Belmont where in all prior races this year his horses finished up the track or nearly killed themselves in the race (see War Pass). I'd really like to know, if someone would care to fill us in.

Then there's Big Brown. What happened to BB? On a hot humid day a big horse not only much more likely to bleed or lock up in his breathing than smaller horses, but more often than not they "will" do so unless appropriately conditioned. How do I know this? I've very recently had a horse about the same size, a talent named Acesmash. But, give Ace a hot day and he goes through the motions. So, I'd be unsurprised by a report of bleeding.

BUT, the horse looked uncomfortable to me from the get go. I thought he never ran a jump. You'll see a sharp turn of the head shortly out of the gate. I also see the possibility(to add more speculation) that their decision to leave the wire laces twisted under the patching material on the quarter crack may have caused laminaer pressure that could explain BB's rather different action. He looked more the fat pig than than lythe athlete.

Finally, you might note that M. Nevin managed to come down the stretch on the wrong lead in the Friday gallop. Unknown why a major rider for a huge stable would do that unless the horse refused to switch. It's all speculation. We'll see what they say.

Casino Drive? Were BB himself I'd have believed he'd have won, but for me it would be a very close call. The Jap training was less than perfect, and you wonder about a horse in his Thursday breeze in the slop failing to change leads at Belmont Park. That's about 5f on one lead. Hoof bruise. They're lucky that's all it was. Where was the bull horn or short wave radio to tell Prado to abort and restart when the horse refused the lead change?

I think they should lighten up on Dutrow. Sure, he's other than a rocket scientist, but I hardly see him as an incarnation of evil. I watched a long Dutrow interview on one of the news services. This guy's got a heart of gold. Unsure that you necessarily give respect to one with a long line of transgressions, but, maybe you cut some slack given what Dutrow's accomplished of late.

Training:
Sat. 6/7 4f riderless warm up then 4 x 1f at near max speed. Art then did a mile of trot under tack with about 100 yds. of gallop. He'd lost a rear shoe so I limited the gallop. Rod walked for 7 minutes under tack.