As ever, you pick two against the field and do a reverse forecast, only for the other one to win and the selection nowhere. Victor Ludorum blew the start again, just as he had done in the French Derby and he was cooked right away, once again he made some headway and once again the effort to catch up took it's toll and he was caught by Siskin after initially coming past him. Looking at them last night Persian King and Victor Ludorum were the two outsiders on some lists and I felt both were better than the odds suggested. Victor Ludorum is a frustrating horse because I think he is a bit better than he is showing and he looks a rogue now. This was last chance with him. Persian King is one I have been with for a while but his last run suggested he has not been as good since the injury that curtailed his season early last year. I thought he was a massive price last night at 12/1 though and was confident he would do better dropped back to a mile and racing on better ground. Kicking my own arse that I didn't pick Persian King of the Fabre the pair. Listening to the preview today the ATR team were all over Pinatubo and it wasn't just that he would win but that he might do something truly special. In the end he has run well but it's the age old story that if you sit off the pace, you have more to give in the finish but the problem is that you have often have too much ground to make up. Sit closer to the pace and you are in a better place to strike from but have burned more petrol to stay there. Siskin ran OK but never looked like winning and his Irish Guineas win does not look great in retrospect. Maybe he just hasn't trained on as well as first thought. Romanised was on edge before the start and was disappointing in last and along with Circus Maximus seemed well below it today. Not sure it was a great renewal really. Persian King has always looked just a shade below real top class but he's been a grand sort for Fabre and he was well backed today. 12/1 last night but returned 18/5 or just over 7/2 he prevailed by a length and 3/4 and I can't buy into the idea that Pinatubo should have won easily. Plenty of the opposition under-performed today and he still could not win it and Persian King was out there going at it from the start and still held Pinatubo off with something to spare.
He was playing games on it last time as well and only got up to win a head. Was way overconfident there but its a good horse. please log in to view this image
Didn't run too badly, well there with a furlong to go then faded. Think Firewater has the potential to win a race or two, for sure. Notebook.
Breeders Cup Mile could be the race for Pinatubo, held up travelling off the strong end to end pace you are guaranteed in that race. Last years best US milers look to have lost their form a bit. Just checked there and hes been cut across the board for the race, missed the 5s.
Have these so called experts (RP, Timeform etc) admitted yet that they were talking out of their arses when allocating a rating of 134 (was it?) for Pinatubo as a 2yo. He's a nice horse but it does make you wonder what they were on
He was the best 2yo since Frankel but imo not as good, his National Stakes performance was arguably the best performance by a 2yo since Frankels Royal Lodge, but still a bit below that and it was very obvious early on that Pinatubo was already the finished article in the middle of his 2yo season, he was freakishly precocious, as opposed to Frankel who was still quite raw and didnt peak until he was 4yo. We are seeing the same horse right now who was running in the Vintage and National Stakes smashing up 2yos, still a top class horse but he just didnt develop any from 2 to 3.
