When watching much of the replay, you could be forgiven for feeling the need to check the result. Settled in the rear of the 6 runner field by Manny Franco, Survie was given a lot to do in a race where all 6 runners recorded a finishing speed of 104% or more. She even appeared to hang slightly to her left behind Ancient Egypt when the field came out of the far turn, but Survie was not going to be denied. Pulled to the outside of the field, she began to respond to the Franco drive and she came home in closing furlong splits of 11.71 and 11.59s, the latter of which was the fastest split of any horse throughout the 12 furlong contest. This race followed a stereotypical French style, where the field was tightly packed before sprinting for 3 furlongs at the end of a middle distance race. Given her earlier career and experience of those conditions, that played to Survie’s strengths and she was the only horse to reach a top speed above the 39 mph mark (39.57 mph). I expected Ancient Egypt to lead from his inside draw, but his opening furlong of 13.98s was only 5th and judging by David Egan’s efforts to drive him forwards, I don’t think it was by design to have him behind the pace. He recorded the longest average stride length in the field, but being behind the pace in a small field around the tight turns of Saratoga was never going to suit and in reality, his chance was probably compromised from the moment he stuttered coming out of the gate. Survie certainly came past him with ease. In fact, she appeared to come past the entire field with ease, as she galloped through the line with race best late speed and run-out speed figures.