LOST IN THE FOG CAN'T FIND A WAY IN STRETCH.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI ELMONT, N.Y. - Lost in the Fog Lost in the Fog (February 4, 2002 - September 17, 2006) was an American thoroughbred race horse. Bred by Susan Seper and born in Florida, the Fog's sire was Lost Soldier (sire so far of 10 stakes winners), a son of Danzig (himself the son of Northern Dancer ranked at #43 by The lost Saturday, lost badly at the Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I thoroughbred horse races operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982 by a consortium of North American racing organizations, led by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. . That's the end of the horseplayers' passionate debate stirred by the formerly invincible sprinter from the racing backwaters of the Bay Area. Oops, not so fast. Passions were still stirring after Lost in the Fog's tired seventh-place finish in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint The Breeders' Cup Sprint is an American Weight for Age Grade I Thoroughbred horse race for three year olds & up. Run on dirt over a distance of 6 Furlongs (3/4 mile), the race has been held annually since 1984 at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the , an undercard un·der·card n. The event or events coming before and supporting the main event, as of boxing matches. event that his presence turned into a semi-main. Owner Harry Aleo, the 85-year-old real-estate and insurance zillionaire zil·lion·aire n. Informal One having an immense, incalculable amount of wealth. [zillion + (million)aire.] from San Francisco, was on camera for a postrace interview on the path away from the track when a fan walked up behind him holding up a hand-lettered T-shirt. ``Lost in the Fog,'' the T-shirt read, ``Will Run Like a Dog.'' What inspired such vitriol vitriol: see sulfuric acid. in the fan, described by witnesses as a man in his 30s, is hard to imagine except that clearly Lost in the Fog's unorthodox winning streak worked on people's emotions in unusual ways. Aleo, who has been described as cantankerous can·tan·ker·ous adj. 1. Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable: disliked her cantankerous landlord. 2. as often as Lost in the Fog has been described as quick, didn't appreciate the guy's evident handicapping prowess. Aleo turned and got right up in the skeptic's face and said something to him. ``You stick that you know where,'' the old man said. No punches were thrown. The fan was smart enough not to tangle with Harry Aleo. But a message was exchanged. The Lost in the Fog doubters aren't going to shut up and the Lost in the Fog camp isn't about to back down. They all get beat, or 99.99 percent of them. The 3-year-old colt with the 10-for-10 record got beat Saturday at Belmont Park in the race that Aleo and trainer Greg Gilchrist and jockey Russell Baze wanted most of all. He got beat without a heavy excuse. He was bumped between other horses at the start, had to rush up on the outside to get his accustomed lead on the backstretch back·stretch n. The part of an oval racecourse farthest from the spectators and opposite the homestretch. of the 6-furlong race, had to run wide on the turn and therefore ran a little farther than his rivals. That would have been an air-tight excuse if he'd hung tough in the stretch. Unfortunately Lost in the Fog went from leading narrowly with 200 yards to go to finishing seventh, trailing winner Silver Train and rider Edgar Prado by six widening lengths at the wire. ``I shook the stick at him at the head of the lane and he opened up,'' Baze said. ``But then he just flattened out on me.'' Lost in the Fog had been 3-5 on the tote board. Silver Train, giving trainer Richard Dutrow a first Breeders' Cup victory that would become two when Saint Liam won the Classic, was 11-1 and paid $25.80 for beating Taste of Paradise in a photo. ``Hats off to the winner,'' Gilchrist said. ``Hats off to all of them in there that ran so well. I still like him (Lost in the Fog). ``He's still a good horse, you know. A career is not made by whether he wins or loses one race. If he wins 10 out of 11 every time, I'm going to keep him around.'' Lost in the Fog ran close to the early pace Saturday. All of the horses close to the pace folded late, Wildcat Heir so weary he fell after the finish (he and jockey Stewart Elliott were unhurt). Maybe Lost in the Fog was, as his critics contended, just not classy enough. Maybe he just was tired. Gilchrist played to the Fog's strength this season, kept him sprinting, resisted the longer races leading to the Triple Crown. It made the trainer a paragon of kind horsemanship horsemanship: see equestrianism. horsemanship Art of training, riding, and handling horses. Good horsemanship requires that a rider control the animal's direction, gait, and speed with maximum effectiveness and minimum effort. . The Fog didn't have it easy, though. He raced all over the country, winning as close to home as Golden Gate Fields Golden Gate Fields is a horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the and Bay Meadows, as far away as Belmont and Gulfstream Park, in between at Turf Paradise. In the holding barn before the race, Lost in the Fog acted nervous, and in the saddling stall, he reared. Even if this wasn't a sign that he wasn't into his task Saturday, it definitely was a waste of energy. Team Fog will go home to the Bay and regroup re·group v. re·grouped, re·group·ing, re·groups v.tr. To arrange in a new grouping. v.intr. 1. To come back together in a tactical formation, as after a dispersal in a retreat. . Gilchrist promised this wasn't the end of the horse. Good. As Harry Aleo and the man who can stick it you know where demonstrated, this is a horse who brings people together. |
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