Comments on: Curlin: 2007 Horse of the Year

By: A year in the books and counting « THE ASPIRING HORSEPLAYER

A year in the books and counting « THE ASPIRING HORSEPLAYER — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:05:47 +0000

[...] forward. My original blog posts were about the youtube videos I had proudly created featuring Curlin as the 2007 Horse of the Year and my greater amazement with the 2007 Triple Crown season at large. Once those were posted, I [...]

By: kstafford

kstafford — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:59:17 +0000

Oh, and about the stretch runners – you’re absolutely right. I’ve heard a lot of more seasoned veterans of the sport comment that jockeys these days don’t have the clock in their head like some of the guys in days past had.

By: kstafford

kstafford — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:57:54 +0000

Nah, in the Derby it was all about traffic. I must’ve watched that race replay 1000 times, because when I saw the race originally from the monitors at Pimlico, you almost never saw Curlin. Thank god for Tivo.

He got stuck in an impossible position and had to steady several times, moving inside and outside of tiring rivals. He really had no business finishing anywhere near the money, but if you look behind Hard Spun after Street Sense passed him, you could see Curlin battling his way through. It was actually that sight more than anything I had seen before that convinced me he was a “super horse. “

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:26:25 +0000

Thanks for the great introduction to an exciting horse. The trouble with good stretch runners is sometimes the jockeys don’t let them go at the right time, and they finish with too much gas left in the tank. Do you think that was the issue at the Derby?