AP in the Travers
RightAngle
Administrator
What is everyone's take as to what happened?
Shipping to east coast from west coast twice in three weeks couldn't have been a good thing.
Track seemed awfully sandy.
Although he looked very willing, just never was as comfortable or brilliant as he had been in other races.
Wonder if he will even be the favorite in the BC Classic now.
Shipping to east coast from west coast twice in three weeks couldn't have been a good thing.
Track seemed awfully sandy.
Although he looked very willing, just never was as comfortable or brilliant as he had been in other races.
Wonder if he will even be the favorite in the BC Classic now.
Comments
He won't go in the Classic Edward. Baffert was set against going to NY, wanted the Awesome Again then the BC... but Zayat wanted it so they went (I'm pretty sure he took a couple million behind the scenes to bring him). Coolmore undoubtedly upset now. Versus any quick older horses at 1 1/4 he could be a ragdoll at this point. Straight to stud IMO.
Also, Keen Ice had NEVER been ridden by a competent jock before today.
Thanks for keeping us around....
I echo this sentiment, thank you Sir!
That being said, AP has raced at numerous different racetracks and handled them all no problem (even the total quagmire on Preakness Day), so it didn't appear to be much of a problem going in.
As for the running, it didn't seem like AP was totally comfortable out there, as he had set some very soft early fractions, but strangely appeared to be spinning his wheels when Frosted came to challenge him. That's not something we had seen from AP before (quite the opposite, in fact). Plus, after that happened, AP was caught dueling down on the rail (where many horses tend to get claustrophobic), with Frosted leaning in on him and even bumping him slightly coming off the turn. That's definitely not a predicament that AP has ever had to deal with before. He definitely looked to be in trouble at that point, and i must say, he showed a good deal of grit when he stuck his head down and battled back to put Frosted away and open up some daylight again.
Unfortunately, he won the battle but lost the war, as Keen Ice was able to capitalize when pouncing late. Frosted did all the dirty work and set AP up to get beat, but we definite;y didn't see AP at the top of his game today, and i have to attribute that to him perhaps not liking the Saratoga surface very much. Frosted doesn't have anywhere near AP's natural speed, so just the fact that he was able to put AP in that position at all was very surprising. The "normal" AP would've been able to turn back Frosted a lot more easily than today's version of AP did, so i think that's what we're left with. AP was game and battled through it as best as he could, but if i had to guess i'd say that's what got him beat. The surface. Very surprising result from where i'm sitting, considering that he had seemed pretty much immune to that sort of thing up until now. Just goes to show you, every surface is different.
As for the Breeders Cup, supposedly there was a quote from Zayat saying that his "first instinct was to retire him", but the thing is, he's already sold AP's breeding rights (before the Derby, in fact), and there are no doubt lucrative clauses in his contract that award big money for AP winning prestigious events/awards (which in my opinion is why he was running in the Travers in the first place). Quite obviously, one of those clauses would undoubtedly involve winning the Breeders Cup Classic. He already has champion 3yo and very likely Horse Of The Year locked up, so i don't really think a loss on the Classic would affect his value any (at least not where Zayat is concerned). So i'd have to think he runs, if healthy. My guess is that the determining factor will be what kind of insurance policy there is on the horse (with regard to him potentially breaking down, i mean). That would seem to be the most likely deal-breaker (the risk/reward involved in running him).
.Also,The Spa and Mr.Baffert not exactly symbiotic! He's now 2/43 in G1 Wins at The Spa.
But disagree with DS,imho,HoY is a given for A.P.