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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Chicago Blackhawks Jerseys Custom .Y. -- So, in the wake of Arrogates devastating, track-record, runaway score in Saturdays Travers Stakes, who is the best 3-year-old male in the land?It might well be Arrogate. What he did in the Travers was amazing stuff, setting a fast pace under pressure and running away through the stretch like he went the first half in 50.84 seconds instead of the 46.84 he did post. And as if racking up a 13-1/2-length victory wasnt enough, Arrogate ran the fastest 1-1/4 miles in the history of Saratoga at 1:59.36, smashing General Assemblys 37-year-old track record.Powerful, powerful stuff. Maybe one of the three or four best performances weve seen all year.But where did this effort come from?Its not like Arrogate hadnt demonstrated considerable potential at the launch of his career in Southern California. He finished third sprinting in his debut last April and then won three straight going two turns, victories that earned him a trip to the Travers.However, none of Arrogates prior three scores were in the same universe as what he did on Saturday. I mean, he freaked in the most extreme sense of the term. In fact, his Travers performance, brilliant as it was, was in such contrast to his prior efforts that it seems only reasonable to require some validation.Arrogate might well be the best 3-year-old in the land, and it might not even be close. But I need to see him perform even fairly close to the way he did Saturday before I consider his Travers effort to be something I buy into completely.No question, the biggest disappointment in the Travers was Exaggerator, who was a distant trailer early, made a brief run late on the far turn, and then backed off to be eased under the wire, finishing 11th of 13.This dismal effort by Exaggerator on a fast track, into a fast pace, makes a very strong case that he is indeed not only pace dependent, but also dependent on a wet track to perform at his best. After all, Exaggerators wins in the Haskell, Preakness, and Santa Anita Derby, and his second in the Kentucky Derby (on a track that was plenty wet despite its fast designation) were all set up by pace and surface.But his last two dry-track starts resulted in 11th-place place finishes in both the Travers and Belmont. And all of this begs the question of whether its wise to award a horse who to this point has been a creation of fantastic pace setups and wet tracks.Nyquist, on the strength of honest wins in the Kentucky Derby and Florida Derby and a third in the Preakness that I think was the best performance in that race, might still be the ranking 3-year-old male. But his grasp on the division is very shaky.Which means that perhaps in no small respect, the door is open for Arrogate. But lets see him do what he did in the Travers again. Like in the Breeders Cup Classic.Quick Saturday Saratoga notes* Lady Eli might have been caught late by Strike Charmer in the Ballston Spa for the first defeat in her seven-race career, but she was a winner Saturday in every other sense of the word.Lady Eli ran big considering she was beaten less than a length off a 14-month layoff. She ran huge considering that layoff was due to laminitis. And what she did Saturday was tremendous when you take into account that shes lucky to be alive, let alone racing again, and racing effectively.Lady Eli made a very strong wide run around the far turn in the Ballston Spa, and even if her move was nicely set up by a fast early pace, that move says Lady Eli is still the Lady Eli we remember and will be a force to be reckoned with going forward.* Flintshire is so much the best in the male turf division its silly, and I say that with all due respect to Ironicus, who was a very good second to Flintshire in the Manhattan last June.However, as tremendously entertaining as Flintshires victories at this Saratoga meet were, lets not forget that he wasnt exactly beating horses who will invoke the memory of Manila. The group who tried to box him in in last months Bowling Green wasnt remotely good enough to pull off the gambit.There were no such machinations Saturday in the Sword Dancer - although Flintshire got two rail passes when barnmates Money Multiplier opened the rail for him around the far turn the final time and rabbit Inordinate did the same turning for home - but the competition really wasnt all that much stronger.I do not note this to denigrate Flintshire. He is very, very good, and I am a fan. However, European horsemen will soon get serious about sending real horses over here for the big fall grass stakes, and the competition Flintshire will face will become stronger by many multiples. And he might very well be good enough to meet the challenge. And that, for me, anyway, will be more entertaining than seeing Flintshire again victimize seriously overmatched competition.* If there was any doubt about Cavortings status as the top older dirt female east of Beholder and Stellar Wind, it was eliminated with her better-than-it-looked victory in the Personal Ensign.With a pace that bordered between deliberate and slow, the Personal Ensign quickly became a race that put a premium on tactics. And Cavorting, in her first career start around two turns or at a distance as far as 1-1/8 miles after winning the Ogden Phipps and Ruffian at Belmont in her last two starts, was up against it tactically, trailing early in the solid field of five.Yet despite an unfavorable setup, Cavorting was still able to produce a stretch rally from the outside to get up in time, which is very much to her credit. She was decidedly better than her half-length win margin would suggest.* Likewise, there was little question going into the Forego that A. P. Indian, the winner of his last three starts, including the Alfred G. Vanderbilt earlier in the meet, was the best male sprinter in the East. There was even less doubt after the Forego as A. P. Indian was decidedly best. That said, this edition of the Forego lured a less-than-inspiring field, and the East Coast sprinters are not an especially tough group, at least right now.* No matter what, Drefong was the speediest and best horse in the Kings Bishop. But it would have been nice to see him have to use his speed to prove his superiority. Instead, the Kings Bishop was giftwrapped for him only a quarter of a mile in.Drefong was in front and clear in a flash after the start of the Kings Bishop because he is, well, California speed. But when 23.11 was posted for a first-quarter fraction, it was clear there was no California speed, or any other speed, at work. That was walking for Drefong, and because he is a good horse, he thoroughly capitalized on his good fortune with a clear-cut score.Still, I suggest not penalizing the closers who were soundly beaten by Drefong this time too severely. They had no shot with the way the Kings Bishop was run.* Much credit to Haveyougoneaway, who made the Ballerina her second graded stakes victory of the Saratoga meet (she won last months Honorable Miss). But I do think several Ballerina contestants, for whatever reason, just did not deliver representative performances.Sheer Drama never moved a muscle, and Wavell Avenue barely did better. Carina Mia finished third as the even-money favorite despite being a 3-year-old against older opponents, but she really shouldnt have weakened after contesting a first quarter of 23.39, which was slow for a seven-furlong stakes race on a fast track, and her stretch drift was troubling.* The final times of the three big seven-furlong stakes ranked in predictable order. A. P. Indian went in 1:20.99, Drefong went in 1:21.25, and Haveyougoneaway went in 1:21.63. But frankly, I was a little surprised there wasnt more of a spread between these times. Cheap Custom Hockey Jerseys . Speaking to the Chicago Tribune at baseballs Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Boras called the former home of the Expos a "tremendous environment" for baseball. Cheap Custom Hockey Jerseys Online . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. Lombardi, the grandson of former Green Bay Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, has been an offensive assistant on Sean Paytons New Orleans staff since 2007. http://www.customhockeycheapjerseys.com/ . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. Graeme Swann fears that England are on a hiding to nothing when the Test series against India gets underway in Rajkot next week, thanks to what he perceives as the ECBs outdated attitude towards slow bowling that has caused both an alarming dearth of Test-quality spinners, and undermined the techniques of their own batsmen when facing it.Swann, Englands most prolific spinner of the modern era, claimed 255 wickets in 60 Tests and played a starring role in his teams remarkable victory on their last tour of India in 2012-13. However, he believes that his success - and that of his former England and Northants team-mate Monty Panesar - came in spite of the system, not because of it.Me and Monty were freaks of nature, we grew up in Northants where the pitches used to rag square, but I moved [to Nottinghamshire] because I wanted to become a better bowler on non-turning pitches, Swann said during the launch of BT Sports cricket coverage.We dont take spin seriously in this country, and then bemoan the fact that we havent got world-class spinners when we go to the subcontinent.Weve got a bloody good team with bloody good cricketers, but we will lose in India because of what has happened 20 years before. We are hamstrung by the fact that we treat spinners as third-class citizens.Swanns own path to international cricket is widely documented. He was picked as a 20-year-old for the 1999-2000 tour of South Africa, only to be banished after a solitary ODI by the then-coach Duncan Fletcher. It wasnt until Peter Moores took over after the 2007 World Cup that he was considered for a recall, and promptly picked up two wickets in the first over of his Test debut, against India at Chennai.Duncan Fletcher did a lot of good for English cricket - he and Nasser Hussain deserve a lot of credit for helping the game become ultra-professional - but spin bowling always lagged behind, said Swann. The best thing Fletcher did for me was not picking me for eight years, even though he did pick guys who I thought werent as good as me. It actually made me a better spinner. I taught myself to bowl because I was unsullied by the system.That system has made several strides in recent seasons, not least the change to the toss regulations in county cricket in 2016 which encouraged the preparation of wickets that offer more to spin bowlers. But, Swann says, that change alone wont be enough to right a generation of wrongs. Youve still got 18 county captains who dont trust their spinners, he said. Its the English way. An over before lunch, two before tea and six before the new ball. Thats it.For that reason, he adds, the fact that England have embarked on a nine-week tour of the subcontinent without appointing a full-time spin coach is a glaring oversight.There is no sort of system in place to provide the backing that spinners need, he said. From the day they arrive in county cricket to the day they play in Tests, its not there. It is for batting, for bowlers, for fielding, for fitness, for nutrition ... but not for spin bowling. And because of that, we are bad players of spin. Its a whole melting pot.To help prepare thhem for the tour of India, England have recruited the former Pakistan offspinner, Saqlain Mushtaq, in a mentoring capacity, but that appointment, says Swann, is little different to the piecemeal solution that Saqlains fellow countryman, Mushtaq Ahmed, offered during his day. Custom Hockey Shirts. or me, Mushy was a brilliant sounding board and a mentor, but he only used to do 40 days a year. Hed be there for a couple of weeks, then hed go home before the second Test. But thered still be a nutritionist or a psychologist on the tour.I know theres only one of me, but its stupid. Ive always bemoaned that, but until we take it seriously, we have to accept that when we play away from home in spin conditions we will be shown up.That fear was made abundantly clear on Englands tour of Bangladesh last month, where they endured a near-miss in the first Test in Chittagong before succumbing to an historic 108-run defeat in the second Test at Dhaka, which featured the stunning loss of 10 wickets for 64 runs in the space of a single session.And Swann, who had to surmount some of the flattest conditions of his career when he helped England win their previous Test series in Bangladesh in 2009-10, said that the identity of Englands conqueror in Dhaka, the teenage offspinner, Mehedi Hasan, really ought to be seen as a wake-up call for the ECB.On paper, Bangladesh are one of the two worst Test teams in the world, but they saw England - a bastion of the game - coming out to play and knew exactly how to beat us, by having turning pitches, simple, and picking an 18-year-old to win it.If that doesnt set off alarm bells in the upper echelons of the game, then we really are pig-headed. Its like that Blackadder quote: If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through!In England, it will take you until you are 28 to bowl the amount of overs that an 18-year-old will have bowled in Bangladesh or India. These kids will have been bowling 30 overs a day since 11 to 12, because the conditions dictate that you cant bowl seam all the day. Its why they play spin better and bowl spin better. Its like playing the piano. After youve done it for 15 years, you can bang out a decent bit of Chopin.Consequently, despite confounding all expectations on their last tour of India four years ago, Swann sees few grounds for optimism in the coming weeks.I dont think weve got a cat in hells chance, seeing how [Ravi] Ashwin and [Ravi] Jadeja bowl, he said. Jadeja doesnt spin the ball, he doesnt try to. He just bowls straight and lets Ashwin do the work. Ashwin isnt a massive turner of the ball, he rarely bowls his carrom ball, but hes very, very accurate. Every Test in India he goes into, he believes hes going to win it.Watch the first Test of the Australia v South Africa series exclusively live on BT Sport 3 from 2am on Wednesday, November 3. BT Sport is your new home for Australias home international matches and Big Bash League, including the 2017-18 Ashes ' ' '