Great ride by Brian Hernandez on Mystik Dan. Horse showed courage going forward on the rail into a very small space. Young horses generally don't do that. Stole the race on the inside.
Our horse, Sierra Leone, had an eventful trip, questionable ride, and missed by inches after doing the Bump with Forever Young down the stretch. I think either would have won without the bumping.
Dornach on the rail didn't go to the lead out of the gate as everyone assumed, leaving Sierra Leone in no man's land and farther back than Gafflione wanted. Then Gaff had to swing all the way from the inside to the outside losing valuable ground at the top of the stretch. Forever Young, the Japanese horse (whom I did not like because he was the winner of the Saudi Derby and there were no figures to assess his performance), actually ran very well and could have won.
In the end, we had many things right but didn't cash. Both Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone were green horses meaning they could get the distance, and Forever Young was yellow because we just didn't know how he stacked up. Catching Freedom (another green) ran a respectable fourth although he was no threat to win. Fierceness, the favorite, got in trouble at the start and ran out of gas as we surmised.
On to the Preakness!
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