In his first race back from his smashing Dubai win, Arrogate just didn’t bring his A Game to Del Mar for The San Diego and ran a lackluster fourth.
He looked comfortable enough and appeared to be launching a run entering the far turn and heading towards the stretch but he flattened out and it became apparent Mike Smith had no gas in the tank. Mike pretty much wrapped him up at that point which was the right thing to do. He galloped out good and all reports thus far is he is fine.
He’s a racehorse, a lightly raced inexperienced one at that, who has accomplished a lot in a short period of time. He’s not a machine. Accelerate ran a big race and drew off to an easy win. In an odd racing discrepancy, the huge place and show prices did NOT reflect the large amount of social media experts that seemed to know “after the race” that Arrogate looked somewhat vulnerable.
Earlier in the day at ‘The Graveyard of Favorites” a favorite prevailed on class, talent and most importantly heart. Lady Eli despite a lack on paper of a lot of early pace was able to run down Quidura for a gritty hard fought neck win.
She got up in the final strides but may have been aided by her stablemate Antonoe being crowded on the rail just when she was trying to launch her rally by Quidura. There was a stewards inquiry and foul claim but no change was made to the order of finish.
While I agree with the call, it’s pretty clear from the pan and head on shots, and even the reverse camera Antonoe was forced to take up losing all chance. We’ll never know what happens if she gets through.
That said Lady Eli proved worthy of the love of her fans and backers with a tremendous display of heart and showing us what a champion looks like.
