The GR I Whitney Stakes

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TJ
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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby TJ » Sat Aug 08, 2015 3:53 pm

jellac wrote:Well Liam's Map almost gave me a heart attack....continuing on strongly after setting a very fast pace from the start....and I had picked him '...last'.... :oops:

Honor Code saved my bacon and ran his with the full on verve of his incredible closing speed. (Thank you Honor Code!)

Tonalist proved to have more 'stay' in his late charge than I had thought he would...


Have to give huge respects to Liam's Map - he was fast early, stayed fast and finished fast and strong, just getting a run down in the last steps. I was impressed by him today. (I promise that I will never pick him to finish last again!)


That was a really good race - what was the final time?

Hi Jellac,
The time was 1:47.82....that was the only thing I called in the Whitney:>) The time tie breaker I won, LOL. You were late calling the heart attack....read DDT's post, he called it before the race was run:>) TJ

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby jellac » Sat Aug 08, 2015 4:09 pm

TJ - You're right DDT did call the heart attack early (!),,,I hope he's recovered as quickly as I have...and I am impressed that you got the final time picked....I had 1:47:06 which I pulled out of no-where.....

Checked the site and saw where I went up in the ratings a bit also which is weird since I'm fairly certain I did not have a single other horse's finish position correctly picked! Wonder what the "80%" figure is all about???

Percentile 80%
Total Points 370
Rank 5391st (still a long way from any Breeder's Cup tickets...sigh_)

Enjoyed watching Cavorting win the Test earlier...she ran a very good race - TakechargeBrandi was done as they reached the top of the stretch and the field swallowed her up - heard the announcer's say she was eased but wonder if she was just worn out or not? Any word?

....well on to the Travers....wonder if American Pharoah will show?

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby TJ » Sun Aug 09, 2015 7:09 am

jellac wrote:TJ - You're right DDT did call the heart attack early (!),,,I hope he's recovered as quickly as I have...and I am impressed that you got the final time picked....I had 1:47:06 which I pulled out of no-where.....

Checked the site and saw where I went up in the ratings a bit also which is weird since I'm fairly certain I did not have a single other horse's finish position correctly picked! Wonder what the "80%" figure is all about???

Percentile 80%
Total Points 370
Rank 5391st (still a long way from any Breeder's Cup tickets...sigh_)

Enjoyed watching Cavorting win the Test earlier...she ran a very good race - TakechargeBrandi was done as they reached the top of the stretch and the field swallowed her up - heard the announcer's say she was eased but wonder if she was just worn out or not? Any word?

....well on to the Travers....wonder if American Pharoah will show?

Hi Jellac,
I just guessed at the time also....just plain luck, but there's no benefit to guessing that unless I did much better in picking the finish positions:>) Turns out I picked Normandy Invasion for 10th and got 40 points. The Travers will be a short field of runners, so maybe there's still a chance to get one right. Not sure what the percentile thing is, but I have an 87 percentile, so it probably means we are in the group that isn't doing that well:>) Lost a lot of ground in this one, back up to 3528. I deserve it, for not putting my favorite horse on top. I've loved Honor Code since his debut up here 2 years ago. Shug has done a great job with him and I'm glad to see he handles 2 turns as well as he's handled the one turn races. He will make the BC Classic a very exciting race!!
No word about Take Charge Brandy as yet, but the way she stopped there is reason for concern? I hope American Pharoah comes for the Travers....I know Zayat wants to run....but Baffert is being extremely cautious with him. He's in light training as if he isn't looking to crank him up for the Travers. He also said he was tired after the Haskell, which opens the door to stay home saying the turm around is too fast to run in the Travers? He might just look to run in the Pennsylvania Derby 3 weeks later, to duck the better competition at Saratoga? Today is the 9th, so in 20 more days we'll have our answers :>) TJ

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby geowarrior » Wed Aug 12, 2015 10:19 am

I thought I was doing well when I picked 1:47.78!

My picks sucked, though - I got 30 points for picking Moreno to come second last.

Tonalist might have the measure of Honor Code at the mile and a quarter. I'm not sure I love the rides that Tonalist has been getting recently either.

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby Cree » Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:46 am

I was away camping and missed the race. Just got around to watching it finally.

It really didn't look like Honor Code was going to get there, he was grinding away at Liam's Map's lead, and in the last 10 strides he just went Zoom. What a race!
I don't know what is going on with Tonalist. I think Velazquez lets him drop back too much and gives him too much to do. Last year he was much much closer to the lead in his races.

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby geowarrior » Wed Aug 12, 2015 1:43 pm

Cree, I agree about Tonalist hence my comments about the rides. You articulated it better than I, though. I just don't feel that the jockey is sensitive to the horse's strengths.

TJ, Jellac - percentile is a statistical measure of how you are doing in reference to the group of contestants. If you are in the 80th percentile that means that 80 percent of the contestants are doing worse than or as well as you are. I'm in the 94th percentile at the moment but it doesn't mean a jot if I don't have those BC tickets! I think it's supposed to make us feel better.

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby TJ » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:03 am

Cree wrote:I was away camping and missed the race. Just got around to watching it finally.

It really didn't look like Honor Code was going to get there, he was grinding away at Liam's Map's lead, and in the last 10 strides he just went Zoom. What a race!
I don't know what is going on with Tonalist. I think Velazquez lets him drop back too much and gives him too much to do. Last year he was much much closer to the lead in his races.


geowarrior wrote:I thought I was doing well when I picked 1:47.78!

My picks sucked, though - I got 30 points for picking Moreno to come second last.

Tonalist might have the measure of Honor Code at the mile and a quarter. I'm not sure I love the rides that Tonalist has been getting recently either.

Hi Cree, Geo,
There was no reason for Tonalist's poor performance. I decided to pick him over my favorite horse, Honor Code because I believed the reason he was beaten was due to bad rides. JV isn't going to put 3 bad rides in a row on Tonalist without being given the boot. I also expected him to be much closer to the pace taking advantage of the speed bias at that distance? I'm starting to think he has some physical problems or is being instructed to be taken off the pace. Though there is no way the instructions would have been to take back going a mile and an eighth at Saratoga, so I lean toward a problem brewing? It is a speed favoring distance as proven by Liam's Map. By the same token it adds to the impressive run by Honor Code. many times a horse that shows such brilliance closing, will not have that same strong finish going around 2 turns. Honor Code threw that out the window, running his last 3/8ths of a mile in 35.80. He is a very special horse, no doubt about that, but Tonalist I doubt is the same horse he was. Liam's Map is an OK horse, but I feel the speed bias carried him a long way....he finished his last 3/8ths in a mediocre 38.20 seconds considering it was the Whitney. I look forward to his race in the BC Classic....I doubt he will be able to go a mile and a quarter, but he will be a pace factor that should set up an exciting race between American Pharoah and Honor Code. The race is below. TJ
http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?tra ... ountry=USA

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby Cree » Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:38 pm

I hope you are wrong about a physical issue. I do agree that he hasn't seemed like the same horse, which is really too bad because I thought he was a real force to reckon with this year.

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Re: The GR I Whitney Stakes

Postby TJ » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:19 pm

Cree wrote:I hope you are wrong about a physical issue. I do agree that he hasn't seemed like the same horse, which is really too bad because I thought he was a real force to reckon with this year.

Hi Cree,
I hope I am wrong too....I just can't figure out why he lost his speed. I thought using his speed would have given him the cushion he needed to best Honor Code in the Whitney....yet he came from further back then HC did? Maybe he just doesn't like the Saratoga track, he's never won up here in 3 attempts? TJ