Invasor Alone At Top

- It looked like both Kent Desormeaux on Premium Tap, and Fernando Jara on Invasor, were peeking back for Discreet Cat before both riders started urging their mounts more energetically about halfway down the long stretch run. Premium Tap, who has been up on or near the lead before, such as in the Woodward, was a willing combatant, but Jara seemed to have him measured all the way. He was still sitting chilly after Desormeaux had started to go to work, and after a few right-handed smacks he was past. "He couldn't get past me until the 3/16 pole (about a furlong and a half out) and the guy just ate me up. He's a freak," said Desormeaux. [Sporting Life] We thought we might be applying that term to a certain other contestant, but the label certainly fits the race winner.

Jara said: "It was a little tough in the end but I had a good horse that exploded." And Kiaran McLaughlin indicated that the Suburban Handicap at Belmont on July 4 could be Invasor's next race, and that works just fine for me!

So much for the worries that Invasor wouldn't like the racetrack where he suffered his only defeat last year. At this point, it's hard to imagine any horse in the world beating him, and that includes Discreet Cat, throat abscess or not. Reporter Richard Edmondson of the UK's Guardian, writing before it was disclosed that Discreet Cat had a problem, wrote: Invasor was first and the Cat was last and never again must we place the value of potential above proven performance. And excuse or not, Discreet Cat is thus far mostly potential. I certainly won't say 'all potential,' because he has dazzled us with flashy wins and gaudy Beyers that seemed to be earned effortlessly. But he'd never lined up against a field of the best competitors before yesterday. And though they may be a good explanation for his trailing the field throughout, Discreet Cat will now have to prove that potential all over again in order to get another shot at the horse who is now undoubtedly and indisputably the top horse in training.

- Invasor's time of 1:59:50 in the race of about 1¼ miles was the second fastest in the 12 editions of the Cup, nine-tenths of a second short of the mark by Dubai Millennium in 2000. [Daily Breeze]

- A commenter asked if anyone knew where one could find the results charts, and I personally have no idea. So please pass that along if you find them.

But I can tell you that poor Lava Man, so happy and carefree in his own familiar surroundings, finished dead last out of 16 in the Dubai Duty Free in his latest disastrous sojourn out of state. Maybe his connections will finally get the hint. Let's hope he can bounce back at home.