I always feel a little silly trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about with races that didn’t happen in America. Well here’s another one that is on the Road to the Kentucky Derby trail. This one was in Ireland. I’ll try not to sound too much like a fool recapping it and giving my thoughts.
The Start
The start of the race seemed good for everyone. There is a slight uphill in what looks to be the first furlong or so. That spread the field out about 5 or 6 lengths right at the beginning of the race.
The Backstretch
The back stretch looked like there were 2 groups of runners. There were 2 early leaders and then the rest of the pack. Snapraetere had the early lead with Brazil less than a length behind as lead on the back stretch. There was about a 3 length lead for these two against the rest of the pack. The rest of the pack was pretty tight with probably less than 5 lengths separating the front and rear of the chase pack.
Start of Turn for home
I’m calling this about 3.5 furlongs to the finish. This is when the closing started to happen and the race started to get exciting. At this point, the field was pretty stretched out. Some horses in the chase pack weren’t firing while the rest were closing on the 2 early leaders.
High Definition went from the back of the pack with only one horse behind him at around 3 furlongs to go and passed the entire field. He had another kick in the last bit to pass 2nd place for the win. It was very impressive to see him close by passing the whole field and have that type of speed at the end of the race.
Monassib was 2nd in the race. He also had a good kick and he was the 2nd best horse that day. He had a 2 or 3 length lead over 3rd place. His kick wasn’t as impressive since he was closer to the lead when he started. He was towards the front of the chase pack and once they hit 2 furlongs to go, he started his kick by sneaking up the rail and separated himself from the rest of the pack with about half a furlong to go. If this race was 7.75 furlongs instead of 8 furlongs, he would have been the winner. He had the second best finish, he just couldn’t hold back High Definition.
Snapraetere was the early leader and kept up after the other 2 horses passed him and finished in the money. He separated himself from the pack with 2 furlongs to go expanded his lead, from the rest of the pack up till 1 furlong to go. That’s when Monassib passed him. He had a very solid run. He was the pace setter for the whole race and then had a kick that separated himself from the rest of the pack.
What stuck out
High Definition and Snapraetere both had great races. High Definition was a closer going from almost dead last to having an amazing turn of foot at the tail end showing he can throw down some serious speed if he wants to.
Snapraetere showed that he could not only lead the whole race, but also have a strong kick. He ran a very solid race and had a very solid kick. There were just 2 horses that had better finishes.