SShared Belief and Wicked Strong have established themselves as the two best RIGHT NOW.  The top four are SB, WS, Cali Chrome and Tonalist and I can’t wait for them to square off .   I would like to offer an opinion and see if it turns out to be true when I do the figs on Wednesday or Thursday from this weekend.  That Wicked Strong will have run the best race of the year in losing the Travers.   HE has so much in ground loss and misuse of energy in the first turn that his race was significantly better thanV.E Day.  While V. E. Day ran great, it’s not unusual in horse racing for the best horse to finish 2nd  — and to my eye, that is exactly what happened.

That being said, Wicked Strong has not been able to pack two monster trips back to back, The Jim Dandy was a nice tune up but the big effort came in The Travers.  So the big question with him is – can he recover and achieve top form for the Breeders Cup?  Hopefully, we shall find out in what I expect will be an amazing race…

Wicked Strong and Tonalist showed what happens when a true Grade 1 horse sees a wants the lead from cheaper speed.  I don’t mean to be harsh, but when you pack weight on these horse and you ask them to match up, loose speed is meaningless if the horse isn’t razor sharp and at least near the quality of the Grade 1 horses.  As many of you hear, I said ” I would not touch Bayern with a 10 foot pole!”  Part of the reason was the 2/1 morning line, which was ridiculous, part of the reason was that both Wicked Strong and Tonalist are really talented horses and part of the reason has to do with the trainers.  Baffert has lost his magic of late and Jimmy Jerkens is the hottest trainer in the world!

The reason Wicked Strong lost, was that he was too close to a stupid fast past and he was herded wide by Tonalist in the first turn,  That little misstep showed up at the wire.