Let me go laught at what Tom Ainslie said *turns and laughs*, the Doc was going against a world record setting rabbit, losing to a great (Damascus) because the use of a rabbit works against a front runner is not a bad lose. I have heard the interview with Frank Whitely on how he thinks that Damasucs would win anyways, if he was truly so confident in his horse he would not run a rabbit, it's that simple, Dr. Fager was the horse to beat and thats the only way he could be beaten. It is a cheap victory that Damascus got and any one who knows anything knows its true. You can't expect a horse to go a mile and a quarter sprinting head to head with such a hot pace it can't be done against world class competition with a mind boggling pace and a champion that has the race setting up for him. It is the same for human sports, very rarely in a race swimming/track long distance event do the winners race on the lead the entire way, usually it happens at the mid to very end that a closer or stalker will catch the pace setter due to him being burnt out. Two years ago a U.S. swimmer was racing an Australian at the Olympics it was a 1000 or 500 meter event (I forgot), anyways the American lead the entire way until he was caught withing the final 50 meters. Dr. Fager's four year old season was one of the best if not the best in horseracing history and for someone to say he is not a champion is not right, even if he wasn't in his prime during his three year old season he was still the best horse in the country. His lose to Damascus when using a rabbit is no true defeat, lets go pit the two in a match race; Damascus would lose terribly he can't go head to head with Dr. Fager over ANY distance.
