Danoome, he was never really on the rail. Espinosa literally ran the perfect race. The word is that Chrome does not like to have dirt in his face, so he placed Chrome just to the outside of the first two horses, right about the middle of the track for most of the race, just off the lead. Coming into the stretch turn, he started his move and then let him run coming out of the turn, and that was all she wrote. It was a brilliant ride. He didn't lead around the track, but also didn't have horses in front of him either, as he either ran side by side with the leaders or somewhere on the track behind them where they weren't kicking dirt back into Chrome. Couldn't have done a better job and couldn't have had a better trip.
I really think people make too much of post positions in the triple crown races. These races are all long enough that the field spreads out and horses have time to go and do pretty much whatever they want. If you avoid any early trouble, especially with a giant field, while everything kind of sorts itself out, you should be able to win from anywhere when the race is over a mile, IMO.
I'm not a Beyer score guy at all, and yesterday's scores don't surprise me. They just don't have the ability to take into account so many variables. Yesterday's race didn't feature a lot of early speed, but it was full of horses that like to make one big move down the stretch. That's pretty much how it played out, but nobody has the ability to match the big move of Chrome who likes to both get out front early and turn it on in the stretch. That's why I keep coming back to the San Felipe. He ran a 22.4 first stretch, and ran the mile in 1:33 in that race, and then still had the ability to pull away from the field at the top of the stretch. That's just outrageous. When you see a horse get out early like that, you either see them get caught in the end and lose, or you see them limp home. He went out fast, and finished just as fast. Yesterday, he didn't need to go out as fast to get into the position he wanted to be in, so he did what he needed to do until the stretch where he made his move. If a couple of horses jumped out early and ran faster splits, he would have had to have done more early. That's the only way he's getting beat. The other horses have to show huge early speed, and make him work, so that he doesn't have the juice left at the top of the stretch. But, if they do that, will they have anything left? He's the total package.
