Is The Track The Thing?

Did the pro-ride favor closers or was it as Garrett Gomez was quoted somewhere that the best horses were running from behind?

I'm suspecting the latter for a couple of reasons. First, though Ventura came from way back in the sprint, none of the other closers were able to gain on either Zaftig or Indian Blessing who were right on the pace all the way around.

Secondly, despite Trevor Denman's pronouncements the pace up front was very fast in most of the races. Did Baffert make a strategic error with Indian Blessing by sending her in a 7F race? Did I overestimate Baffert yesterday? IB was spent by the quarter pole and possibly it had little to do with the track.

Also I was mulling that large horses seemed to be handling things and several smaller horses were struggling. Coincidence? Something with hoof size? Are we seeing perfectly conformed larger horses taking charge?

And, congratulations to this group. Never thought when I was listening to Herb Alpert and his trumpet in the mid 1960's that there'd be a connection to horse racing in 2008 with Alpert/Jerry Moss A & M records and Zenyatta.
You can recall Giacomo, but, Moss and his wife finally got the really big horse. You could say "took long enough." Yet, we know it's other than easy. Congrats!!!

And also kudos to Mike Smith and Shireffs for their race strategy which Smith pulled off flawlessly also with Stardom Bound. I'll be taking a closer look at their methods when I get to PERFORMANCE.

Now, on to today's races and I looked only at the Classic. Does info from Friday and Steve Haskin observing that Tiago looks great and has been galloping change anything? Possibly somebody might try to steal the race upfront. Fairbanks, of course, but maybe Smooth Air and Ravens Pass. Suspect also that that may be the only shot for Henrythenavigator.

As to Tiago, they always look great on light work and good care, which fails to change that this horse has done far less work than some others based on PPs. Enjoy the day, and here are the picks of the real experts:
http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=feature&id=36094