Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Scot — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:42:26 GMT

Would of been good to see the Belmont.Just no time. Though having a T.V would help too !

Have always believed from experience at Belmont that the best way to win is from the front. Has anyone an idea why ?

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

JoyJackson21 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:50:56 GMT

Cassandra,

I can see where wearing the blinkers in the Kentucky Derby may have helped Palace Malice sharpen and focus better for the Belmont Stakes, but I mourn for what might have been for Palace Malice. Who knows if he would have had a much different and much better outcome in the Kentucky Derby (i.e., a win in the Kentucky Derby) if he had not been hindered by the blinkers. Going without them would have at least given Palace Malice a much better chance at being able to win the race. With the blinkers it spelled more bad luck and underachievement for Palace Malice. No blinkers in the Belmont = Palace Malice able to give his best performance on the track. And, for once, Lady Luck was best friends with Palace Malice. That always helps! - LOL

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

JoyJackson21 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:44:31 GMT

To Derbylin,

Three different horses winning Triple Crown races has happened quite a bit recently, especially since 2000. Here's a list of some of them, horses listed in Kentucky Derby, Preakness & Belmont order in each year: 2013 (Orb, Oxbow & Palace Malice); 2011 (Animal Kingdom, Shackleford; Ruler On Ice); 2010 (Super Saver, Lookin At Lucky; Drosselmeyer); 2009 (Mine That Bird, Rachel Alexandra, Summer Bird); 2007 (Street Sense, Curlin, Rags to Riches); 2006 (Barbaro, Bernadini; Jazil); 2000 (Fusaichi Pegasus, Red Bullet, Commendable). I hope this list helps!

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

JoyJackson21 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:30:53 GMT

Love 'Em All:

I agree, Oxbow is the real champ in my book as well. What heart! This horse is a tough competitor - he gives his best every race. He may not be the biggest horse in the race, but he definitely has the biggest heart and determination of any 3 year old colt this year! His "sister in tenacity & heart" on the fillies' side this year is Beholder.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

JoyJackson21 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:27:04 GMT

ksweatman9:

Calidoscopio! Love that 10 year old! I went to Breeders' Cup races last November at Santa Anita and Calidoscopio's Marathon win stayed vividly in my mind. He won that race the EXACT SAME WAY he won Saturday's Brooklyn Stakes race. A thing of beauty to behold. Twenty+ lengths trailing the leader and mows them all down in the stretch to win the race. After you pick up your mouth from the ground, all you can do is go "Wow!", applaud loudly for him and commit that kind of performance to memory forever. Two of the greatest races I have ever seen has come from Calidoscopio! I am a fan of his forever more! - LOL.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Soldier Course — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:03:52 GMT

Thanks, Steve, for your great series of TC articles this year. Lots of new information and interesting perspectives.

Derby was my favorite moment. Then the Rooster.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

El Kabong — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:53:53 GMT

Linda in Texas,

Suzy left me hanging. I tried several times to gleam a pick but she just squinted her eyes and gave me poker face. She doesn't smoke, she doesn't drink, and now I know, she doesn't gamble. But she does love to grab a sock from my laundry basket and bury it in the garden(Her way of telling me not to leave her home alone, ever! She hates it.) Maybe next time I'll leave a sock for each horse in the gate(stuff a post position in the toe) and see if that doesn't produce a winner.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Pedigree Ann — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:40:23 GMT

Some of you will remember what I am paraphrasing here -

So the Malice from the Palace held the brew that was true, unlike the Derby, where it had the pellet with the poison. But what became of the flagon with the dragon?

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Pedigree Ann — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:38:04 GMT

I posted on June 6 at an earlier Haskin blog -

"Frac Daddy -... Toss.

Overanalyze - ... Toss.

Giant Finish - ... Toss.

Incognito - ... Toss.

Midnight Taboo - ... Toss.

Will Take Charge - ...Toss.

Vyjack - ... Toss.

Unlimited Budget -... Toss.

This make it easier to figure out the Belmont?"

I hope this helped somebody. I do actually put thought and study into this stuff. Cutting the field down to only 6 horses to consider makes life easier. I cut two more before betting my pick 4, which I lost because I singled Optimizer instead of including Point of Entry to save money (my biggest failing as a bettor) - the survivors were Orb, Oxbow, Palace Malice, and Golden Soul.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Pedigree Ann — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:54:15 GMT

ksweatman -

If you were here (BH blogs) last fall, you may have noticed I was touting Calidoscopio for the BC Marathon. Love those genuine dirt marathoners. We used to have them in this country, horses like Exterminator, Stymie (yes, Stymie was a great stayer), Princequillo, Promised Land, etc. But we've taken away or degraded all their races - Saratoga Cup (14f), Pimlico Cup (20f), Gallant Fox H (13f), Jockey Club Gold Cup (16f), Manhattan H (12f dirt), New York H (18f dirt), Lawarence Realization (14f, dirt, 3yo), etc. So many once important races are not even 10f anymore (their loss of grade often follows shortening - get a clue, track management!)

And it is not like Calido is particularly bred for a distance of ground. His sire Luhuk is best known for his sprinters and milers - remember Avanzado, the red rocketship who won the Ancient Title in '03? A more typical Luhuk. And his damsire Lefty, whose best moment was when he won the Bay Shore - his get were more often milers, although as a damsire some of the Prince John influence has shown up.

But Calido was trained differently, learned to switch off big time, so that after cantering behind the field for however long is needed, he can unleash that Luhuk rocketship sprint. US trainers below a certain age never learned about this.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Cassandra.Says — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:30:02 GMT

T.C. fever done, Paynter back and Point of Entry not in danger, perhaps this is a good time to bring up a plea I've been sitting on.

PLEASE DO NOT, as you love them, romanticize injured horses and give cover to the horrible things that are done to them.

Horses are prey animals. When it comes to fight or flight, they choose flight. A horse's greatest horror is to be in pain, boxed in, without use of its legs.

A horse in this predicament does not fight bravely for its life. A horse does not know it is alive. (Maybe elephants and dolphins do. Not horses.) If it fights for anything, it's to escape.

A many page feature in the B-H of yore related proudly the "saving" of a hugely valuable stallion with a badly broken hock. When the horse was ready to go "tharn," collapsing into his sling with his eyes rolled back and refusing to get back on his feet, he was smacked back and forth across the head until he finally was roused to strike and was tricked back onto his feet.

Do not try to make this a wounded warrior displaying the courage that made him a great champion racehorse and sire.

The reason for the prolonged sleep deprivation was a lot of precedents where horses in slings rebroke their legs trying to get up and down. They finally decided the stallion was as good as dead if they didn't let him down, so he was allowed to sleep, after some weeks of treatment that ranks near the top on lists of torture techniques.

Another B-H feature (on how much WE LUV our horses) described a mare blind from birth who lived alone in the centre of a paddock. She had learned not to fear her groom and tolerated his approach. Otherwise she had no friend -- no human, no horse friend, no stable cat or sparrow. Usually she was pregnant.

"Oh, we'd love to let Buttercup keep a foal . . .

[GOOD. DO IT!]

. . . but we're afraid she'd step on it."

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

tjconway — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:49:07 GMT

Congrats on the pick Steve. The track was listed as "fast"....NO WAY was it fast. This don't matter because this crop of 3-year-olds are pretty "subpar". If the track really was fast, they would have gotten home in 2:29! They were all "crawling" home in the end. The last 1/4 mile must have taken 29 seconds...At least Point of Entry was badass! I hope he recovers fully....He's a good one.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Mary — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:01:26 GMT

By the way my favorite race this past week was not the Belmont; it was Margano's race at Pimlico. He is Barbaro's brother, and for the first time he ran in the slop on a dirt track and won going away. Remember Barbaro broke down in the Preakness at Pimlico. Margano a late bloomer is one to watch this summer and fall.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Mary — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 01:51:59 GMT

robin, you are right, no standouts, which will make this summer and fall fun to watch where they all go next. Incognito, the only horse in the Belmont to run drug free, is very special to me. His pedigree is just lovely; so I will be watching him.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

predict — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:26:14 GMT

One thought on the Belmont, on the wake of what happened to Point of Entry, is it was great to see a horse,Incognito, that the owner refuses to use Lasix on run fourth. Everyone should know by now that the use of this drug causes depletion of Calcium in the bones of these race horses. As robinm said regarding Point of Entry," He has great connections and I know they'll do what is best for the horse". Really? What is best for all the horses is to not use the drugs that are being used, and then and only then might we stop seeing so many of these great athletes with bone injuries.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Karen in Texas — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:40:13 GMT

Congratulations to Palace Malice and Dogwood! As someone said above, Lane's End and Stonestreet must be sharing the happiness! Ironic that this colt prevailed in one of the only major races his sire could not capture; and that Todd Pletcher trained the winner of that 2007 Belmont. Curlin now has a classic winner his first crop; may Palace Malice go forward successfully from here.

I thought other weekend highlight performances came from Calidoscopio and Point of Entry. Like robinm, above, I want to see a healthy son of Dynaformer standing at stud.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

ksweatman9 — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 19:32:34 GMT

Has anyone else fallen for the veteran 10 year old Calidoscopio? He runs like Silky Sullivan, could be a clone. You gotta love horses who give you a bit of a heart attack before they hit the wire. When this horse does leave the track, I hope they do right by him. I think we'll see him again at the Breeder's Cup. I hope so.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Love 'em all — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:15:38 GMT

No GOOP .... you get POOi.

Cheers and congrats to Oxbow and Orb who ran all three TC races. Congrats to Incognito ... ran w/o Lasix and still got 4th. Octave should be mighty proud of her son.

Just my opinion, Palace Malice ran the Belmont like he should have the Derby, which was no fault of the horse, of course. Hope all the horses and jockeys are fine today.

Oxbow is the real champ in my book.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

robinm — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:32:00 GMT

No excuses in the Belmont. Fast track, good break for all, no one got stopped. They went a little too fast up front, but the gutsy Oxbow was still there at the end. I've got to think the best 4 took 4 of the 5 top spots and we don't really know how good Incognito is.

The only real disappointment to me is the slow time which tells me that none of this year's colts are real standouts.

The best effort of the day was the extraordinary Point of Entry. Not a lover of soft turf and still won impressively in a very good time for the conditions. Very sad to hear he was injured in the running. I'd love to see him back, but not at the risk of future injury. Much better we see a great son of Dynaformer standing at stud next year. He has great connections and I know they'll doe what is best for the horse.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

derbylin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:42:19 GMT

Wow, Steve, you truly are the master! I have a question for all bloggers, when was the last time that the three different winners of the triple crown races all hit the board in the Belmont? I read Claire's article but could find only one other instance where this has happened like yesterday. In 1975 Foolish Pleasure won the Derby, Master Derby the Preakness and Avatar the Belmont. Both Foolish Pleasure and Master Derby hit the board when Avatar won the Belmont.

I, too, congratulate Cot Campbell and Mike Smith.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Cassandra.Says — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:52:40 GMT

JOY:

Those blinkers in the Derby probably won the Belmont. All the horses appeared undertrained -- six furlongs in 1:09.8, gallop out a mile in 1:36.2 would have served all of them well.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Cassandra.Says — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 08:42:08 GMT

So for two weeks or so we have listened to wise words on Belmont strategy, summed up: "Wait. When you think you've waited too long, wait some more."

Oxbow moved too soon. Revolutionary moved too soon. Orb moved too soon.

Everybody talking and nobody listening.

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

kelso fan — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 04:56:27 GMT

So happy to see Palace Malice put it all together for the Belmont. I've always liked this colt and was so pleased, Steve, that you were high on him as well. Congratulations to all of his connections and great recognition for Aiken! By the way, Incognito has Aiken background too!

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

Mookie's Hero — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 04:06:20 GMT

Hello Steve

Loved your article on the dam of Palace Malice and sincerely hope Mr McBride ( her trainer) made it to the winner's circle for the Belmont. Such a heartwarming story and such wonderful ending.

Mookie's Hero

re: Haskin's Belmont Report: Belmont Brain Teaser

krizda — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 03:27:11 GMT

So happy for Palace Malice proving we weren't crazy for thinking he had a good shot at this. This is a big boost for Curlin too... getting his first graded stake winner in his first crop and to do it with the Belmont Stakes. Lanes End and Stonestreet must be ecstatic about this :-)