#1 [url]

Jun 9 15 10:39 AM

NJ Capper wrote:
GarlandTex wrote:

Tommy, it isn't always about the time, it is how the time was achieved... look at these numbers:

       24.06          48.83      1:13.41       1:37.99       2:02.33      2:26.65
Fractions: 24.77        24.58         24.58           24.34          24.32

This shows how AP really devoured the field... he started well and never let up running fractions in almost perfectly symmetrical times, and they said he couldn't go 1-1/2 miles. Please note the last 1/2 mile was faster than the first half mile.
 


Those initial  fractions were crawling for that track.  1.13.41 for 6F, 1.37.99 and 2.02.33 for a mile and a quarter?  That's very slow - the 2nd and 3rd quarters were the slowest.

I know it was much shorter, but the quasi-allowance 3-year old stakes horses in the first race went in 1.10.42 and 1.35.60 - both more than two seconds faster.  In the second race, which was an allowance race, the 3-year old winner went 1.10.58  and 1.34.58 (4th quarter a flat 24 seconds).

I see that The Blood-Horse has been touting the fact that American Pharoah ran his last quarter faster than Secretariat did.  But they neglect to mention that Secretariat had already run 6F in 1.09.80 (3.61 seconds FASTER) and the 1-1/4 in 1.59.00 (3.33 seconds FASTER).  And of course his final time was 2-3/5 faster untouched with an insurmountable lead - by the top of the stretch it was a virtual walkover.

It was a very good race, one of the better Belmonts, but I think people should hold off on the Secretariat comparisons at least until he does more later this year.

Even if we were to compare them now, to put this into perspective American Pharoah  ran the 54th fastest 1-1/4 Kentucky Derby, the 70th fastest 1-3/16 Preakness, and the 6th fastest Belmont.  On the other hand, Secretariat ran the fastest in all three races!
The fact still stands that no matter how you cut it... the 147th running of the Belmont was the 6th fastest ever (and that includes non-triple crown winners). Baffert has steadily said that AP didn't run well in the Derby, that he never seemed to really get a hold of the track and still he won. As for the Preakness, AP had no reason to go faster in a monsoon since he destroyed the field, so comparing that track to the fast track Secretariat ran on makes little sense. Now don't get me wrong, in my mind Secretariat is the best I have ever seen. I can't say that about AP since he has yet to run against older horses. Nor has he run nearly as many times as Big Red did, and likely won't ever. In finality I am going to enjoy this achievement by a truly remarkable horse no matter how anyone else feels.

"My bets never lose, they just don't win."