Did anyone feel the air being let out of the balloon, with no bang, just a fizzle.  That’ s how I felt watching the progressively slower finish WITH NO CLOSERS COMING!  Nothing wrong with the effort of Palace Malice or even Oxbow, they both raced as hard as they could, but with fractions of 23+, 46+ and 1:10 for the front 6 furlongs — they (PM and OXBOW) ran the final 6 furlongs in a shade below 1:20.   I repeat 1:20!!!  And nobody could do anything!  Orb ran terribly, Golden Soul was spent, Overanalyze was total disappointment, and my horse — Vyjack —  all I can say is “why not a jack”.   I mean common, Affirmed would have stopped the teletimer in under 2:26 if he had this fairly glib track.

Again, as I always say and this is an object lesson, find a horse that is going to run better than he has ever run or find a horse who is very consistent — always with a big price — and don’t worry that they may not be fast enough!  That’s right, because sometimes the FAST horses forget to show up FAST.  Races fall apart, good horses run bad races and the 1 1/2  mile of The Belmont is really a killer.

One comment on Vyjack, I really wish Julian Leparoux had rangled him back the Joel Rosario did in The Gotham.  Julian’s soft touch allowed that horses to get too close to the pace — out of the gate — and he consequently got spun 8 wide into the first turn and way to close to the hot pace and he took a heavy bump to boot.  I am sure there are other trips that need to be reported, and I assure you I will dutifully and objectively bring them to the fore in this space over this week…

Password holder, the Post Race Analysis will be up on Wednesday – hopefully with proper video sync..

The Belmont Stakes arrives, the 3rd and toughest leg of the Triple Crown.  It’s so tough that horses who have won the KD and Preakness by miles are routinely defeated in the Belmont by lesser stock.  The whole Triple Crown series is a grueling test of endurance and toughness, no wonder it’s been 35 years since Affirmed last defeated the amazing Alydar in what has to be the greatest race I EVER SAW!

Once they go down for the first time, it’s hard to get back up, most horses that win the KD and lose in the Preakness are pretty much spent by the Belmont and don’t even try, a couple have and most of them do not succeed, but one that did was the great and ill-fated Swale in 1984.  After toying with a field in Kentucky, he met a tough task on the front end in the Preakness — dueling himself into defeat.  There was no taking the great Swale back off the pace and rating, he was very much like his daddy, he wanted to run freely on the front end  (just not as fast as his daddy, the Great Seattle Slew).

Orb is going to attempt the same thing, run a big winning race in the KD, then meet circumstances that defeat him at Pimlico in the Preakness and then return to Belmont — his home grounds — and run for glory and a touch of greatness.   I certainly thin ORB could be the one, but I actually will be betting on another…  YOu can get my best ideas, simply by purchasing the Power Page but if you want to hear more, you can purchase a Password for the Belmont Presentation and see how I broke down each horse with a final total analysis in video format on Saturday… Just a $12.50 fee for your password…. Passwords will be sent out until 11:00 PM tonight and again at 7:00 AM Saturday morning and each 1/2 hour thereafter…