You win the Gun Runner, you go fast 46 and change, and keep going, after plastering a maiden field 28 days before.
You win the Lecomte Stakes, relaxed on the lead, as the 2nd choice, beating a horse, you just just beat on the square, Nash, drawing away with tons in the tank, but, I tell you, no respect.
Track Phantom, is the Rodney Dangerfield of the 2024 Kentucky Derby march to the roses, he may have as well start a comedy act.
'I was so ugly my parents had to hang a pork chop around my neck to get the dog to play with me.'
Hall of Fame is the better Asmussen, pundits say. The grass is always greener in another stall.
Hall of Fame looks like a good horse as well, but has yet to accomplish what 'Phantom has done and how he has done it.
'When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.'
"I just don't know who was behind him'', said one handicapper, it was Nash, who was favored whom Track Phantom crushed in the Gun Runner along with Lat Long, whom Track Phantom beat in maiden win plus a field of winners behind him.
Hall of Fame, the maiden winner on the same card, is a million dollar baby, and is being heralded and in circles much higher, despite only a maiden win.
The flashy, 21`st century, hanging fruit, the auction price, seems to be a stronger handicapping factor many turn to.
'If it cost seven figures it must be good' says the crowd. Track Phantom's $500K purchase price is just chump change.
'My mom took me to a dog show and I won!'
There is less than 95 days before the first Saturday in May, which can be an eternity for a horse, but there is new shooters coming forth from this years crop.
Just A Touch, a Justify colt from the Brad Cox barn, who broke maiden this past Saturday, January 27 and Speak Easy, whom also broke maiden on the same day, will be asked the tall task of the Kentucky Derby preps in less than 99 days just to make it in the starting gate,
We rush horses, that's what we do.
'I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap.'
A third newcomer, Victory Avenue, a NY bred, whom ran 2nd to Speak Easy, hailing from the same connections as Mage, will surely now be also put on the pony express for the Kentucky Derby.
When you are blessed to have a horse named Mage, who wins the Kentucky Derby, breaking maiden almost to the day, a year prior, of Victory Avenue 2nd place finish this past Saturday, you may think you have another Mage and wouldn't surprise me if he, Victory Avenue, does indeed shows up in the Fountain of Youth, as a maiden on March 2, 2024 at Gulfstream, just as Mage did.
'With my dog I don’t get no respect. He keeps barking at the front door. He doesn’t want to go out. He wants me to leave.'
Yes, Track Phantom gets no respect.