Dale Romans Knows

"Yet sit and see, minding true things by what their mockeries be."
--Mr. S.



Winning the Preakness tempered by break down of Paddy O' Prado. Where is horse racing when the Dale Romans of the world start winning TC races? First, give credit where credit is due. Unbridled combined with Forestry--a longer leaner style together in the same body with a stouter more muscular animal gets us the ground pounding Shakelford with the intrinsic ooomph that hard boots recognize in some of the larger horses. In human parlance S has "got it going", and although it was a little hard to tell whether that final surge to stay ahead of Animal Kingdom came from "pure want to" or a little extra energy from a lucky late lead change, it is a fairly rare thing to see one of our animals show a look of real determination--a huge muscular animal refusing to be headed.

For AK, did anyone wonder what happened to the big strong powerful looking animal that won the Derby? The nice ground eating stride of this naturally talented horse still there, piss and vinegar and appearance awol. Quite unsurprising per previous entries on this blog.

How does Romans get a pass for failing to breeze Derby to Preakness, and Graham Motion gets nailed here. Romans was quoted that he was going to let his horse roll a little in a long gallop somewhere on the way. Will look at it on Paulick report to see if there is any hint. Suspect this exactly occurred--probably a good bit of lengthy two minute licking and faster compared to AK who seemed restricted to fractions in :16s--and again to Romans the credit for training that resulted in a win.

You could see the AK thing coming merely by looking at the horse, if you know what to look for. Here he is unloading at Pimlico, a little left over Derby tightness showing, but in a state of fading fast due to the light training:
And, why would you put the horse in a van shortly after 5 am, the same exact time when horses normally rest and sleep? Unable to wait to 6 a.m. or better yet 6:30 a.m.??? Just asking. And, the trip in the Preakness for AK. Did this piece of brilliant race strategy of letting the horse get 20 lengths behind come from G. Motion, the jock? They're all Zenyattas now.

More little stuff. Below a shot of Mucho Macho Man's glue ons, if you enlarge. Aside that equilox holding those on kills hoof walls over time, for what fathomable reason would a horse wear glue ons in major racing? Never used 'em but can almost guarantee slight slippage and giving horse less than totally secure feeling. Little stuff.

The Preakness was an entertaining race, although if we checked the time, was S and AK being all alone out there at the end, the result of great training or the rest of the field fading out of sight in slow fractions. Take one more look at this next post. Romans and his training? For myself normally I try to limit post race comments to congrats. In this instance--for myself--I am unable to get over this thing concerning Paddy O'Praddo where once again the sport was put on the edge, probably by questionable training and entering a horse that physically was unready, although there is likely a 20% chance they merely had bad luck.
Training:
Tues. 5/24 Nice riderless speed work with video that will be posted tomorrow + 3 times trot gallop up and down the hill. Nob aborted after getting the first reasonably fast gallop of the year as the horse was a little out of control. Leave it at that one. We're back to were we were April 10 before the hoof problem with the horse.