I was thinking he might be too big boned for the 1.5 miles...however he looks somewhat like Secretariat and proved to be a lot like him...just a big and powerful horse...
I think the bigger more powerful horses can really shine in the Belmont due to the distance. I think they carry the weight better over the distance and I think the wider turns at Belmont help too. Thats why some of the greatest performances and race times have all come from really big horse i.e. Secretariat, Man o War, and War Admiral to name a few.
Goose I think you are right, the guy who owned Noble Indy and Vino Rosso was saying leading up to the race that Noble Indy would have the lead no matter what it took. Well Baffert is very intelligent and this is not his first rodeo and he knew that somebody pushing Justify and creating a really fast pace would be disastrous for a front running Justify. Therefor he had his own plan to make sure that didn't happen. Thats called strategy and racing, and as long as his horses both rode a clean race which they did it is not illegal. That owner is just bitter that he was out played at his own game.
Yep, competition is competition and if you ain’t pushing limits you ain’t trying hard enough, I applaud Baffert for a brilliant strategy...
But it wasn't just competition it was tactics. The way Baffert used the other horse was tactics to make sure that the other owner who had been spouting off about taking the lead no matter what would not be able to. Because to do so would set it up for a closer, anybody that knows horse racing knows the faster the pace the worse it is for front runners and the more it sets up for closers. Better tactics by that other owner Repole or whatever his name is would have been to say nothing and to just do it, and then force Justify and Mike Smith to make a decision, keep the lead and push, or fall back off the pace some and try and make a later run. Still might not have worked but who knows. I guess it's easy over here for me behind a computer hahahahaha
Call it tactic, call it competition, call it strategy, call it whatever, the 3 go hand in hand when it comes to a victory, I don’t know much about horse racing and who all said what before, during, or after this whole thing, I didn’t watch any pre race interviews much less the two legs leading up to this and only reason I watched this last leg was because I walked in the door and it was about to come on...
Goose my last comment wasn't directed at you I was just piggybacking off what you already said. Your right they all do go hand in hand and I was just adding my thoughts on how smart Baffert was.
