The excuses that some trainers and jockeys give their horses for
disappointing races can be rather flimsy, with traffic and track
surface ranking among the most popular culprits.
But when Awesome Act regressed from a visually sensational win
in the Gotham Stakes to finish a distant third behind Eskendereya in
the April 3 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, there may have been a reasonable
explanation for the subpar effort: The colt lost a shoe at the break
and never seemed completely comfortable to jockey Julien Leparoux.
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