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This has been a pretty interesting discussion. My thoughts are that Justify is clearly much better than anyone in that race and I cannot see a lot of scenarios that would have made him lose.
That being said when you put it all together it looks very scripted. Ownership groups owning multiple key 3 year olds, possibly keeping the horses capable of beating Justify out of the last 2 races. Then you add the fact that Bafferts other horse (whether intentional or not) proceeded to run interference enabling Justify to establish a nice and relaxed easy lead and it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Not because he is an unworthy Champion, but because he easily could have done it the right way. Horse racing fans want to see Champions exhibit greatness not be spoon fed a victory. This part of the game has just evolved into the cost of losing be so much, that the win at any cost attitude prevails. Baffert has made it clear over the years that when you need to win at all costs he is the man.
Whether a horse is entered as a rabbit and or blocking back the horse clearly isn't in the race to win. But at least the rabbit is just is doing his thing on the front end. If the the Rabbit is going to fast, Justify can just take back and pounce on him later in the race. The blocking back on the other hand that is taking up key space, pinning horses in and enabling Justify to go unchallenged through key portions of the race and is basically dictating the outcome. That absolutely should not be tolerated in this sport.
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