The Path to the Finish Line

With two Triple Crown races in the books, this year has far more layers to it than could have ever been predicted. So far, it has certainly been one wild ride.

It began with the Kentucky Derby. With the scratch of Rodriguez, 2025 became the very first edition in recent memory that did not gate one single colt that was built historically correct for the race. Not one.

The triumph of the talented Into Mischief son, Sovereignty, came in a neatly wrapped package where all the stars aligned for this late running colt.

The Post Position Draw: Sovereignty drew post #16. This post kept him far removed from the massacre that ensued for those in the 9th through to the 1st gates. It was also extremely advantageous to his running style.

The Style: After the scratches of Rodriguez and Tappan Street, the speedy configurations inherited by an offspring of Into Mischief remained only between Citizen Bull and Sovereignty. One on the lead and one from the rear. Two extreme ends of the spectrum where one was fully engaged from the start and one was left completely alone until he was ready to compete. The top 4 finishers all sat in 10th position and below at the 1/4 pole.

The Weather: While there were quite a few on the field conducive to the sloppy track, there were also many who would inevitably retreat because of it. Where Sovereignty initially had a full field of competitors to face leading up to the Derby, that number in front of him dwindled in the mud by no fault of their own. Less competition moving forward towards the wire with quite a few extra retreating backwards.

The Pace: The two colts with the highest inbred speed on the field, Citizen Bull (9.00) and Neoequos (7.00) blasted through the mud up front and both were done by the 8.5 mark. This, in turn, took out two other speedy competitors, East Avenue and American Promise. Another 4 horses added to the group of non-competitive mud runners. At this point, what began as 19 solid Derby competitors, dwindled to 18 before the bell, down to approximately 8 realistic runners still in the game by the 9f mark.

With Sovereignty and Journalism well deserving of all of the accolades and the huge spotlight for taking first and second in the 151st Kentucky Derby, it was Baeza, Final Gambit and Owen Almighty who truly deserve the same. All three of those colts overcame their own adversities against one or more of those 4 points listed above.

Next we have the Preakness with all of its controversies and its surprises.

First is Gosger. Just like Final Gambit and Owen Almighty in the Derby, this colt ran one hell of a race. Severely under-rated, he stalked a stamina horse who ran 46.66 at the half and continued on past him as if it was a walk in the park. Based on breeding alone, this is opposite of what should have occurred. But overlooking certain aspects usually always come to the forefront in hindsight.

Gosger is a Nyquist colt with a 4.33/7.00 speed driven index. Attach the 2nd generation Tapit aspect to it and that balance was exquisite. Unfortunately, the Preakness has no ties to historically perfect configurations, which obliterated that aspect when handicapping. That was a mistake of epic proportions.

If Clever Again was to be highly considered as a win candidate based on his lead style with stamina on his side, then Gosger SHOULD HAVE BEEN equally considered based on the same. As a matter of fact, his set-up was even better based on the influx of speed inherited from his chefs and non-chefs out front. This was a huge blunder that causes severe embarrassment by not even considering that aspect.

Then we have the same type of cringe-worthy rhetoric that we saw with Repole against City of Troy and Aiden O'Brien prior to the Breeder's Cup Classic.

This time, it came from D. Wayne Lukas against Heart of Honor and Jamie Osborne.

What is it about American "Horsemen" who feel the need to make a mockery of our sport instead of welcoming the participation of our overseas competitors to expand the sport? Yes, it was comedy time for the press during the Preakness Breakfast, but something about it goes beyond light-hearted bantering.

D. Wayne Lukas took it upon himself to tell the press that the entry of Osborne's colt into the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown with his daughter aboard was "a Publicity Stunt."

Neither horse hit the board but it is fitting that Heart of Honor managed 5th and American Promise faded to dead last after Clever Again was eased. So fitting, indeed.

Now we'll look at the late run of Journalism.

To preface, I take no sides with this either way. No matter how it is viewed, one way or the other, the boxing matches on these tracks will eventually lead to a significant disaster in due time. It doesn't matter which way it is viewed, it still all boils down to recklessness on that track. The horse, no matter which one we look at, is an athlete, not a weapon.

The triumphant win of Journalism became more about his "fighting determination and bravery" to make a run of it and about what an incredible move he made through those horses to take that trophy home. That is definitely true concerning the horse, but where is the line drawn with the jockeys that put him in that position.

Where is the line drawn for the well-being of Journalism, Clever Again, and Goal Oriented?

This could be looked at in two different ways, but either way, theses horses morphed into weapons.

As they begin to round that turn, no matter how you slice and dice it, Clever Again was in the one path, Journalism was coming up behind him in the one path as well. Flavien Prat had Goal Oriented in the 2 Path.

Rispoli decided not to take Journalism to the far outside of the wall of horses when he had the opening and instead decided to track Clever Again on the rail. It was then that Clever Again lost all steam and started to retreat.

Goal Oriented was still in the 2 path. Nowhere does it state that a horse in the 2 path has to move over to make room for another horse. But at what cost?

Flavien held his ground and gave a nudge with his elbow. Not condoning it, but in that split second, Flavien and Goal Oriented were running in that 2 path. They held that position and Rispoli not only wanted it, he needed it.

At the same time, Clever Again continued to retreat and either Journalism was going to run directly into him OR he would have had to steady Journalism and lose the race.

Where is the hole in that photo?

Rather than lose the race, he took his monster and forged through undeterred, almost knocking Jose Ortiz and Clever Again over the rail. Clever Again had to be eased in his retreat and Rispoli succeeded in his quest to split the horses. Flavien was finally pushed over to the 3 path to give Journalism his shot at the wire.

This, in turn, put all three horses in danger of being injured. Forget the jockeying, all three of those horses were lucky to walk away from that race and regardless of the outcome, both Rispoli (and Prat) took it way too far.

One could argue that Prat had no obligation to move from the two path while Clever Again and Journalism were in the one path. One could also argue that Rispoli had the time prior to move his horse to the far outside and ride it to the wire without potential harm to the other horses.

One could also argue that Prat put both Clever Again and Journalism in severe danger by holding his ground and not anticipating the potential calamity that could have ensued.

Neither was going to give in and the best horse prevailed. The stewards turn a blind eye.

We (luckily) witnessed a very determined and talented colt take home that trophy as opposed to 3 horses ending in complete disaster. This sport is treading on complete annihilation based on a mentality of "win at all costs."