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The Doctor Gets Revenge For Derby In The Baltimore Crown
Original article written by Jack Meyer posted 9 years 0 weeks agoThe middle jewel of the Triple Crown seems to get lost in the mix between the hype of the Derby and the stamina it takes to survive the Classic; it’s kind of the “black sheep” of the three races. This year the Crown had some notable defectors from the Derby that many thought would make the trip, Safe Passage comes to mind, Proverb is a possibility, and perhaps Ace, the reasons are of no concern anymore, besides, we did get the return of Tightrope and the presence of Cypher in the Crown as well as round two of Doctor vs. Skyfall, so there was plenty of entertainment to go around.
As I said, Skyfall was back to try and fend off the boys once more, The Doctor was trying to pick up the pieces of his heartbreaking loss in the Derby, Gorgeous, another filly, was coming off a huge win in the Louisville Oaks, Cypher had been aiming for this race all year, and Tightrope got himself right after a few trainer errors caused him to miss the Derby, a lot of storylines heading into Friday’s race.
Alysse Peverell was so determined to give her colt the best shot in the Crown that she made sure to enter a “rabbit” named Albus Severus to go with Doctor to set an honest pace in order for Tightrope to have enough in the tank to run them down in the end. Kris Bobby was thinking the same thing, she wanted Gorgeous to have enough speed to give Doctor all he could handle leaving Cypher with a shot at the end to run them down. It seemed everyone was sure of one thing; keep Doctor in check on the front and or all is lost…period!
Well, in a sense the plan worked, Gorgeous did go with The Doctor with Albus chasing in third, it was an honest enough pace to satisfy everyone. On the other hand, The Doctor’s speed is the best I’ve seen in the few years I’ve been in the SIM, when I say “I’ve seen”, that’s what I mean, I haven’t seen anything like it, but I don’t claim to watch every race and compare times. The Doctor just ran and ran in the Crown, he set the pace and decided to go to the lead no matter what came after him, I got chills hearing the call. Skyfall was within striking distance the entire time, she was placed nicely she just couldn’t get past The Doctor. Through The Ghost managed to just hang around enough to grab a piece of the purse money, but was middle of the pack the entire time, he looked as though he didn’t fire. Tightrope and Cypher both had shots in the stretch to run down The Doctor, Cypher flattened out badly while Tightrope closed with a fury still coming up 1 ½ lengths short. It was The Doctor’s day, he wouldn’t be denied this time around….
The Derby and Crown are in the books, no Triple Crown winner yet again with the Classic still to come. A look ahead shows the absence of Doctor and Tightrope in the Long Island Classic both deciding to run at one another yet again in the Queen’s Derby, they are joined by Safe Passage, Through the Ghost, and Answer The Call as their main competition as of this writing. So, with the absence of the 1-2 finishers in the Crown, who is making the trip to New York? We’ll start with the reigning Derby champion Skyfall, she is giving Art Vandalay a 1-2 punch of pure nightmare’s for the other entrants as she joins Coronation once again in the post parade. Ace is set to return to action after 3 weeks off for Eric Nalbone along with Jolene Danner’s Linguistics who chose to skip the Crown in favor of the Classic. Until The End returns for Alysse Peverell after skipping the Crown, Rodrigo De Triano, Hyperbole, and Hydra also make a return trip from the Derby to throw down in the Classic, so there are a lot of familiar Derby runners in this one.
The two biggest questions lingering after the Crown and before the Classic are these, what is going on with Proverb, he seems to have skipped the last two legs of the Triple Crown, and I really am curious as to why. I know the field isn’t full as of yet for the Classic next week, so he may still show up, I’m just one of those players who wants to see the best with the best all the time, and Proverb is one of those. The second question I have is what happened to Cypher, he had everything he asked for in the Crown, enough speed and plenty of daylight to close, he just didn’t fire, I don’t think it’s lack of talent, maybe it was just meant to be. As lackluster as the Crown seemed, the Classic is the opposite. Aside from the fact that Doctor and Tightrope aren’t going, the field is staked full so it should be a great race, one that this SIMster is really looking forward to listening to.
Jack Meyer