What is pletcher thinking?

[griff]

and once again.. This filly nor eight belles have/had no idea what they are/were runniung against or for and it would not matter if they did..

griff

[Derby2004]

Griff, I see you're as passionate about the sport as I am. But General Custer didnts know what he was up against either. Fact is devil may care has not run against this type of competition in her life. Not even close. She wins the frizette over a mediocre field of fillies barely and that warrants her a spot in the derby? She will be asked for too much to even have a shot at winning. She might not know what she's up against but she knows what she's used to. And 19 of the best males ain't it

[griff]

So she looses, so what.. She will in the company of 19 other good horses that also lost..

griff

[ireneinwa]

First not every horse races in a 5k claimed against 19 of the best males in the country. Not the same pressure. Second I'm not against a filly takin on the boys. But has she warranted the risks? And about being compared to eight belles, 99.9 percent of the people who will watch the derby don't know diddly about horses or racing. They just like to watch this one race per year. So those people will remember eight belles. That's what I meant by everybody will be thinking of her if the filly races.

Why can't they think of Winning Colors winning The Derby against the boys?

[Aug27]

I think more non-hard core racing people know about and remember Rachel Alexandra than Eight Belles.

There are many reasons to run the filly in this year's Derby:
1) the owner may want to (!);
2) she should like the distance;
3) she has more than enough graded earnings.

From another perspective,
"7 Pletcher + 13 non-Pletcher"
compared to
"6 Pletcher + 14 non-Pletcher"
simply improves his odds of winning.

Eight Belles = 2nd in Derby
Rags to Riches = 1st in Belmont
Rachel Alexandra = 1st in Preakness.

Solid classy 2YO form and several hard races against the best competition leading up to the Derby was the 1980s (& earlier) method of winning.
Now, it's a completely different game. Run 'em 3 to 5 times over nine months and then whisk 'em off to the breeding shed.

[ruaff]

[quote="Derby2004"]Todd pletcher is now considering running the filly devil may care in the derby. Has he gotten so caught up in winning the derby that he'd put a filly that has raced 5 times with 3 wins in the second hardest race with 19 boys. Who has she beaten? She won the frizette but against who? She has never beaten the beat females. [b]Now to my underlying dilemma about it, Jackson bend is sitting 21st right now. If she enters chances are his bubble will burst and he will be sitting in a stall during the derby. [/b]All I could think about when I read it was eight belles.[/quote]

Remember the underlying agenda here: The OP has a mare in foal to Jackson Bend's sire so they do not want JB pushed out of the Derby. So I doubt Eight Belles is ALL they were thinking about. My mare is in foal to Afleet Alex - I imagine I'd be a little upset if something was going to keep Dublin out. You just want a shot to be connected - but if you don't have the earnings and someone else wants to run you are SOL.

Listened to the the replay of At The Races this morning and Steve Byk and Mike Welsch were talking about Pletcher (and many others) absolutely NOT wanting Eightyfiveinafifty to run in the Derby (I assume because of the bolt in the Whirlaway) and they implied he may enter more animals to keep that one out IF he were to win the Derby Trial.

[Derby2004]

The reason winning colors isn't remembered as much as eight belles is because the eight belles incident just happened. I stated my dilemma with the filly running because she hasn't beaten anyone in the filly division and yes because there's a chance Jackson bend might be bumped out. He might have gotten his butt handed to him by eskendereya but that's the only horse to convincingly beat him. He has beaten d'funnybone, awesome act and some other good horses. He's never been worse than second in his career so yeah I think he deserves a shot more than devil may care. But when I did read this about her running I thought of her well being and eight belles. You can't take a junior high school basketball player and put him in the NBA overnight. All I'm saying is let her run in the oaks and prove herself then look at the Preakness or Belmont.

[Toral]

Why should a filly have to "prove herself" before running in the Derby? She's already done what she's needed to to accumulate graded earnings, just as every other colt in the top 20. She's bred for the distance so why not?

I don't understand why fillies aren't given many chances to run against the opposite sex here in the states as opposed to overseas. Even if they do know they're not running with their gender I don't see how that lends anything different to their performance.

And frankly the public has a very short attention span, especially when it comes to something as unfamiliar as horse racing- they'll remember RA and Zenyatta before they do Eight Belles.

[griff]

What if we experts were allowed to scratch all the Derby horses some of us do not believe have a chance of winning???

How many would be left??

griff

[dublino]

What if we experts were allowed to scratch all the Derby horses some of us do not believe have a chance of winning???

How many would be left??

griff

So Eskendereya is out then...........

[horsenuts]

First not every horse races in a 5k claimed against 19 of the best males in the country. Not the same pressure. Second I'm not against a filly takin on the boys. But has she warranted the risks? And about being compared to eight belles, 99.9 percent of the people who will watch the derby don't know diddly about horses or racing. They just like to watch this one race per year. So those people will remember eight belles. That's what I meant by everybody will be thinking of her if the filly races.

Why can't they think of Winning Colors winning The Derby against the boys?

Or Genuine Risk winning the Derby.... or Zenyatta winning the BCC.......... or Miesque winning two BC mile events in a run........ or Goldikova winning the past two BC mile events................... or Rags to Riches winning the Belmont.

Eight Belles has bad luck and suddenly the 'experts' come out of the wood work pointing fingers while giving ludicrous reasons for her demise when in fact fillies and mares are every bit as capable of winning big races and have done so many times as evidenced above.

[ElPrado]

Devil May Care is no Eight Belles. Also, the only resemblance she has to Winning Colors is her sex. She doesn't have much in common with Rags To Riches, either, except sex and the same trainer.
This whole thing is to keep possible competition away from his stable star. What the problem is I don't know. Esk either has it or he doesn't. With the shaved legs, not working with the other horses in the mix from the same barn, it just looks more and more as if he's either panicking or there really is something wrong. He can't admit that, Z would commit either murder or hari kari.

[Toral]

Well according to the Bloodhorse, Eskendarya has been scratched from the derby so that argument is out the window.

[griff]

What argument did Eskendarya being scratched settle??

griff

[Tucumcari]

Good grief. I would think RA and Zenyatta have helped wiped out the stigma that the sexes should abstain from competing out of gender.
If the horse is good enough. Run it. Heck, Blind Luck should be in the Derby. No one would be second guessing that move.