Mindframe (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)
By Laura Pugh
After the Haskell, there were a lot of comments targeted at Repole Stable’s Mindframe, who, once again, ran second to Dornoch. Several are calling out the effort as a hang job, with several armchair trainers saying the colt needs blinkers. Now, to be fair, it was brought up by his jockey that blinkers could help too, but I think the calls for equipment changes are premature.
For the sake of giving you some background, the Haskell Invitational marked Mindframe’s fourth career start. After two starts, the colt was thrown into the deep end in the Belmont Stakes, where he was only beaten by a half-length, while attempting a distance that was 3/16ths farther than he had run in his very short career. Again, this was all in his 3rd career start.
In Mindframe’s two previous starts, he won for fun. First by over 13 lengths, and in his second start he won by over seven lengths.
In the Belmont Stakes, in addition to the facts above, he made a strong middle move between the ¾’s and mile call. He clocked his individual fourth quarter in roughly 24.55, then continued the move to stick his head in front at the stretch call. Dornoch, as Dornoch often does, dug in and re-rallied. The chart brings to attention to the fact that Mindframe raced erratically in the stretch, which probably cost him some ground, noting specifically that he shied from the left-handed whip.
In the Haskell, several say that the pace should have allowed Mindframe to keep more in reserve, resulting in a stronger late kick… but as always, those who say that the pace was slow, are looking at raw splits. The first quarter was :23.32, which is honest enough, but the half-mile in :48.08, resulting in an internal split of :24.76, is why so many believe the pace was slow. What they are missing is the fact that Dornoch sped up considerably in the third quarter. The internal split for the third quarter was stopped in :23.97 seconds, which is .79 seconds faster than the previous split. That is roughly 4 ½ lengths faster.
During that split, Mindframe actually gained ground on Dornoch, going from 2 lengths behind to only ¾’s of a length behind. His individual third quarter split would calculate to about :23.75, while going four wide. Add to the fact that he stumbled and got knocked around some at the start, and it isn’t much of a mystery why he fell a little flat in the stretch. You can also see him shift around in the stretch when Ortiz goes to his whip, which would support a case for the opinion that he reacts negatively to the whip.
Looking at all of this, I don’t believe that Mindframe is a horse that hangs or needs blinkers. Dornoch is just superior.
Dornoch does something that not many horses or speed horses can do. He throws down the gauntlet with a stiff opening split, lulls the field to sleep for the second quarter, then ratchets up the heat with a swift middle quarter and still keeps on rolling. With speed horses, the normal flow to a race is to see a steady decline in speed through each consecutive quarter. Sometimes you’ll see quicker ending splits if the first few splits were moderate, but it’s not common to see a horse quicken in the middle the way Dornoch does.
This tactic throws off the flow of the race, and takes the starch out of closers, as it forces them to quicken much earlier than optimal to keep within striking distance. When they do this, even talented ones like Sierra Leone and Mindframe start to flatten out in the stretch because they took their best shot in the middle of the race, giving the impression that they “hang.”
Mindframe doesn’t hang, nor does he need blinkers. He needs to get away from Dornoch.
