Loose ends, Belmont Aftermath

I do plan to come to the point on the next post.  But first, I need to finish up vis a vis the horse race. The Belmont Stakes 2013 are run and done.  No mud.  Palace Malice with Dexter, New Mexico’s Mike Smith up, won the race “going away” (gaining rather than losing ground as he approached the finish line).  Palace Malice had placed 12^th in the Kentucky Derby six weeks ago and came into the Belmont with little popular support.   In the Derby, defying Mike Smith’s attempts to convince him to adopt a more moderate approach, Palace Malice broke fast, took the lead, and ran like a maniac, leading the field through most of the race.  He tired, however, and  horses began to pass him.  By the time the race was done, almost all the horses had done so.  He was wearing blinkers.

Focus, yes... but I am not sure it's the blinkers

                Blinkers limit a horse’s vision.  A horse wearing blinkers can see in front of himself/herself and cannot see to the right or left.  The idea of blinkers is to help the horse to focus on the task at hand rather than the society of horses around him/her.  This helps to keep a horse calm.  Apparently, however, the blinkers had the opposite effect on Palace Malice.  One can speculate as to why this was so.  Perhaps the horse felt that he could run out from behind the blinkers if he went fast enough and  would then be able to enjoy the pleasures of full, uncompromised horsey vision.  Something about the blinkers made him impervious to his Jockey’s wise attempts to provide guidance.  This was apparent to anyone who cared about the inner life of the 12^th place finisher in a race that Orb won handily.  His trainer, Tod Pletcher and his jockey cared.  Along with the owner, who also cared, they decided 1) That Jockey Smith was not responsible for the unseemly behavior and 2) That they would not enter him in the Preakness, electing to rest him six weeks and enter him in the Belmont Stakes and 3) that he would be spared the indignity of the blinkers for that race.

The public was not impressed, the Belmont odds on Palace Malice ended up at 15 to 1.  The public could not assemble much confidence in a horse who ran out of gas in the Derby, a much shorter race than the Belmont.  How could a horse who faded badly in a race of 1 ¼ miles do anything in a race ¼ mile further?  How indeed (see the race here)?  Jockey Smith attributed the difference to the blinkers, noting that Palace Malice was calm, relaxed, and responsive running without the hated blinkers.  He stayed close to the leaders but held off the pace allowing speed demon Freedom Child to exhaust Preakness winner Oxbow.  Palace Malice then moved comfortably in the last 660 yards of the race to pass Oxbow who held the lead after Freedom Child’s inevitable fade.  Oxbow, a tough customer, was able to overcome his exhaustion enough to hold off a late (far too late) charge by Orb, who ran third.  For me, the most interesting moment of the race was when Oxbow gave up on his attempt to defeat Palace Malice and immediately turned his attention to the attempt to defeat Orb.  I know the feeling