KC,
That was a nice note from Doc!
I had trouble this year using Howard's traditional Derby guidelines. Super Saver certainly qualified off a very close finish 2nd in the G1 Arkansas Derby, and certainly distributes all his energy Late (as do most horses running routes), but using reasonable lines for the main contenders, as you show, and even adding in #1 Looking for Lucky, Super Saver does not rank highly in any Late Energy rankings, or in Hidden energy. Rather he ranks highly Early (F1 and to the 2nd call) and '
looks' like an Early horse (positionally). So how did he run: - 6-6-4-4-2-1
(positions by quarter mile). Given all the other Earlies: Line of David, American Lion, Conveyance, Sidney's Candy - you'd think there'd be a lot of work to do for an early running, early energy distributing horse, and that the race would set up Other Than Early as it typically does - hence my choices of the best Late Energy horses: Looking and Sidney.
If I had looked rather at the better Early Energy horses, I'd have been looking closer at Super and Ice Box...
Is this a one-off situation (which can certainly happen), or are there changing trends?
But congratulations on that LAD race!
Ted
Hence my confusion
