Head up. Head down. Short stride. Long stride. Win. Lose.
A nose. That’s it. A nose. There is nothing like a nose in horse racing. Pietrelcina rallied along the rail to nail pacesetter Watermelon Crush. But when did he nail him? One of those where you slide off the couch in the dying strides. Live, I thought he got beat. Miles and Annie thought he won. I think Kendrick Carmouche as well. The first replay, I felt better. The second one, I felt worse. Where the hell is the wire?
The texts flooded in…
Wow. Did you get it???
Nice try. Hard finish.
Terrible angle.
Ran great. Brutal beat.
F***!
Yeah, we lost. By a nose. A $12,800 nose.
In a game of inches, the inch went the other way.
The chart: PIETRELCINA out run early inside, continued back under patient handling up the backstretch, began to creep closer far turn, got through every jump while continuing inside, reached contention when straightened for home, continued to come up the rail, late bid, missed.
They got everything but the emotion.
A career maiden, the Maryland-bred probably thinks he won. That’s our solace in a tough loss. Due? It was Pietrelcina’s 17th start. Of course, it was Watermelon Crush’s 37th try. A lot of long, slow, contemplative, contentious walks back to the barn for the connections of those two over the years. Sure, a $16,000 maiden claimer but wins are wins and losses are losses.
As we know, we’ll try again.
