Cloud Computing defeats Classic Empire on the money,
to win the Preakness in an extraordinary training job. But this race is as much about the connections talking the jockey into going too fast too early. We saw it last year with Nyquist and we saw it again with Classic Empire. The engaged on the front end, in a pretty elevated speed duel, that got really nasty into the first turn and down the backstretch. It’s fair to say that Classic Empire won the battler but lost the “Empire”, to the modern day – hit tech – and totally opportunistic Cloud Computing.
I feel comfortable saying, had Classic Empire laid off of Always Dreaming, he would have taken over later on in the race and finished more than 1 foot faster, which would have been enough to win this… But that’s easy to say and sometimes much harder to do!
Whatever, this is a major victory for the Jerry J’s Power Page as the two top finishers were my TWO STAR horses! And I would emphasize – MY ONLY TWO STAR HORSES in the race. And it’s often the case that the slower, higher priced STAR horse is in good enough condition to pick up the pieces when a mistake has been made.
Good for Chad Brown and good for the Jerry J Power Page customers… we won!
About my Preakness Package — here were some victories:
- Multiplier was too slow to compete with these… after a perfect ground saving trip, he didn’t have the acceleration to get to where he needed to get…
- Senior Investment, was well rated, with the comment “This is a really nice horse” and “I will use him in constructing my exotics” — he went off 30/1 and ran 3rd!
- Always Dreaming — “This is a colt I really – really – really like”… “I think he is vulnerable”… and “I will make my play elsewhere.” — It’s clear I understood this horse.
- I rated Hence, Term of Art and Multiplier as “SLOW and in very tough”
- Lookin At Lee, unlikely to run as well as he did in the KD and I rated him exactly the same as Senior Investment and they finished noses apart…
- And most important… I made it very clear that Classic Empire was a superb key, and coming to a superior race. I wish his connections had as much confidence in him as I had.
My point… I got this race right… Hope you had it with me…
All handicapping totals will be updated and published for Wednesday… Thanks and come back.