Almost November

Handicapping BC races finished and so it's back to the Canterbury Tales for me and good stuff like this:

"Ey! Goddes mercy!" seyd our Hoste tho.
"Now swich a wyf I pray God kepe me fro!
Lo, which sleightes and subtilitees
In wommen been, for ay as bisy as bees
Ben they, us sely men for to deceyve
And from a sothe ever wol they weyve."

"wol" means woe. The man had a sense of humor.

How'd my expert handicapping of the Classic go? Well, I underestimated the Europeans perfectly. And, it looks as if Sheik Mohammed has learned something after all these years, OMG.

The order of finish based purely on number of furlongs trained in the last 45 days and number of works THAT SHOWED would have been:

Curlin
Colonel John
Smooth Air
Champs Elysees
Tiago
Go Between
Fairbanks
Student Council
Casino Drive
the three Europeans

Actual order of finish for the American horses and Casino was:
Tiago
Curlin
Go Between
Colonel John
Smooth Air
Champs Elysees
Fairbanks
Student Council
Casino Drive

The horses that worked very little, Fairbanks, Student Council and Casino Drive, indeed finished up the track whereas the rest was a predictable jumble based on that everyone that finished ahead of Fairbanks all had a close approximation of the same amount of work, ie. there was too little separating them in terms of works from 9/1 to the Cup. E.g. The most was done by Curlin--8 works, 43f. The least by Tiago 6 works, 38f. The fly in the ointment was Champs. for which hopefully Bobby Frankel better have an explanation.

And then there's this interesting photo:


Notice the Midnight Lute above has slightly longer toes on his fronts than hinds. A bit odd compared to what you see given the speed of his race. How'd Doug O'Neil do, coming soon.

Training:
Fri: 10/24 Off. Rain.
Sat. 10/25 each horse trotted 1 mile under tack.
Sun. 10/26: 30 mph winds and 40 degrees. decided on paddock work. 10 minutes rigorous in drying mud.
Mon. 10/27 Nob and myself pussy out on the tack work in cold weather. mutual agreement. This'll look good in January, but in October tack work in this stuff is like diving into a freshly filled swimming pool in July. We again opt for 10 min. rigorous riderless work in drying mud.
Tues. 10/28: After yesterday's fast stuff both trot 1.25 mile under tack with some gallop.
Wed. 10/29: 1.25 miles under tack with significant gallop for each. then riderless speed work in :14s, call it 7f. the last furlong of the planned 8f turned into a fight.