Tune Me In and the non-believers

Having now won the Cliff Hanger on the heels of having won the Oceanport, Tune Me In seems on the verge of sweeping some sort of unofficial series of Monmouth middle-distance turf races. Yet in what must qualify as a freak occurrence, he was the longest shot on the board in both races! Digest that: here is a horse which had just won a race of the same grade at the same track, on the same surface and almost at the same distance, and he went off the longest shot on the board.

And I can't say I blame the Cliff Hanger bettors. Tune Me In "stole" the Oceanport; he was the rank outsider that day at 25-1; and the Cliff Hanger was just a five-horse field. Somebody had to be the longest shot on the board. Still, I wonder when the last time the equivalent happened? I bet it was a long time ago.

Tune Me In certainly looked unimpressive in the DRF PPs before the Oceanport. He had run 19 times before, placing in one stake, and earning just shy of $200,000. If you wanted to say something laudatory about him, though, the horse was in the money in 13 of his first 14 career races. That certainly suggests some class. It is notable that when he left New Jersey for New York and Florida, he stopped running in the money. But I don't mean to suggest that the Cliff Hanger and Oceanport are easier than nw3x allowances at Gulfstream and Belmont (although I suppose that is a reasonable contention).