Heading into last Saturday’s Meadowlands Pace, I ventured into the paddock to take a closer look at the horses. Upon first glance at Captain Crunch, I was sure he was a 5-year-old given his size and overall presence in the stall. I looked down at the others including Bettor’s Wish and wondered to myself if this wouldn’t be a fair fight? Opinions circulated as they always will prior to a major stakes race and there were many reasons that people pointed towards the favorite. Captain Crunch had built an imposing résumé over the last month with his epic performance in the North America Cup followed by a victory in his Meadowlands Pace elimination that afforded him a “good” draw, though some questioned the benefit of getting rail position. To me prior to the race it wasn’t necessarily about how good Captain Crunch was as a horse, but what strategy his driver Scott Zeron, and the other nine horses and drivers, would employ when the gate sprung open and the race went into “real” time. I spoke with several people I consider experts about what might possibly unfold and I was assured by one that “They will respect the favorite” when the gates fold in. One opinion can’t possibly cover what 10 different drivers may be thinking at an exact moment. Yet given the number of horses with noses on the gate it appeared as if from the outset a majority of the field was going to look for the front end. Yet in my mind there was only one horse that looked to catch Scott Zeron off guard and that was Captain Ahab from post three. Driver Andy McCarthy’s charge crossed in front of Captain Crunch so quickly that it set up a chain reaction that suddenly put the race favorite at a post and position disadvantage few would have expected. Given the other leavers, including race winner Best In Show and third-place finisher Workin Ona Mystery, had already outsprinted the favorite in the rush to the first turn and second-choice Bettor’s Wish had floated out in the middle, Zeron had to act quickly and move Captain Crunch off the pylons as not to get boxed in. The presence of Captain Ahab in the line-up to the lead is significant to me because it was one extra horse Zeron and Captain Crunch would have to go by on an extended move to the front. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, it’s easy to go back to the start of the race and ask whether Captain Crunch would have expended less energy had he pushed off more quickly at the outset and forced longshots Captain Ahab and Best In Show to tuck behind him. Given the visuals of the race it appeared as if Captain Crunch was still being used very hard in the early going yet didn’t have the position edge any longer. Pre-race strategy is much different from in-game strategy and as much as I didn’t like what Captain Crunch had to go through in the early stages, I can’t say that driver Dexter Dunn’s decision to float out at the start with Bettor’s Wish was more appealing as the field passed the opening quarter. When Tim Tetrick behind Workin Ona Mystery begrudgingly let Captain Crunch in front of him shortly before the half, Dunn was the one looking as if he would never see the lead with Bettor’s Wish. When they roll back the footage of this race in years to come, it will be Dunn’s drive and Bettor’s Wish’s performance that garners the most accolades. In just a short period in North America, Dunn has shown an incredible sense of pace and seamless reaction to changes within a race few of his predecessors ever possessed. Instead of panic-mode being set off by the fact that he wasn’t going to clear to the front with Bettor’s Wish, Dunn calmly rode up without cover and didn’t allow the moment to get the better of him or for that matter his horse. What it indicated post-race was that the driver knew what his horse was capable of primarily, and secondly, that Dunn was trying to figure out a way to actually win the race turning for home while few would have given him a realistic chance of finishing in the money at the halfway point. It cannot go without saying just how impactful driver’s decisions are within a race and sometimes there are moves made that can escape the player. While the stretch battle was going on Tim Tetrick had angled Workin Ona Mystery wide to give him a clear chance. Brian Sears and Best In Show appeared to have all of the room necessary to go up the pylons as Captain Crunch was bearing out. Yet the head-on replay shows distinctly that Sears did move to the inside not in early stretch. Instead Best In Show was right behind Captain Crunch for a large majority of the stretch, only veering inside in the late stages for one final surge. To me the significance of Brian Sears’ path to victory is that he made two conscious decisions in remaining with cover. First and foremost, there was no telling whether Best In Show would have enough pace to pass the top three horses. While the Bettor’s Delight-sired colt was improving, there wasn’t much on his past performance lines to suggest he could be on the wire with the top three. Second, Sears was able to camouflage his intentions and that may have in fact been the deciding factor. Dunn did a masterful job of getting Bettor’s Wish to surge past Captain Crunch late and he kept his colt going with Workin Ona Mystery bearing down to his right flank. Yet deep into the stretch you could see Dunn peer to his inside to catch a glimpse of the race winner. We often talk about the horses being the story and certainly racing would be nothing without them, yet a careful replay of the 2019 Meadowlands Pace video prove no matter what the natural ability of the horses, they need to be driven by masters who understand strategy and are able to convey their wishes upon them. It was a great race with a surprising ending. It’s what the sport needs . . .