Lexington Postcript

"Advice". Good name! I'll take small solace that the horse was better than 15-1 on my 4/17 post, although obviously the categorical handicapping imperatives here need a little work when the field seems to finish inversely to their training. Save detailed discussion till the blog finally gets to the questions of performance, although for now we may note, per the 4/17 post that the horse that won was also the one rated highest in this field on recent training!

And, a word on my horse, Jeranimo where I got sucked in by watching the San Felipe video where J ran such a good race next to Pioneer of the Nile. That's where I went brain dead (this time).
I quit before analyzing jocks, trainers, connections, shipping, all the intangibles. If you're tempted to dismiss the importance of the ride take a look at this video and watch J. Jeeeeeez.

J has the dangerous inside post, and, sure enough Blanc, instead of getting himself in position, permits the horse to fall back and race all the way around eating polytrack kickback with the little horse's face plastered against the huge El Crespo butt. Small horses get intimidated by this sort of thing. Blanc fidgets back and forth but never makes a real move on the horse till the 1/8th when it's too late. If you're jock refuses to compete--and that's other than to "risk"--its tough to win in this sort of field. May we blame this on the trainer. Were was the strategy to "use" this well trained horse. They left about 50% of him out there on the track.
That's my J rant.

Notice that the second place horse Conservative, is among the best trained horses for the year. The blog will continue to look at training vs. performance and what rules may be derived (if any) as we go. In the mean time, enjoy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative

Training:
Sun 4/19: Too much mud to do anything productive. Off.
Mon: 4/20. In come the winds and sun drying us out, and a forecast that constant rains may be over finally. We're ready, but, typical horses. First, Rodney refuses leaving the barn for riderless speed work. Is it his sprung shoe? negative, Rod has an abscess right hind + a sprung front shoe. That leaves Art who enthusiastically attacks the riderless speed stuff but seems unable to stay with the 14 year old. What's the deal there? As it turns out sprung shoe #2 at about 80 degrees. Scratched tack work and shoe'd instead.