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Go Olds!

Quality Road holds off Musket Man in the 2010 Met Mile (Jason Moran)

In an unusual and welcome turn of events, we’re having a year that’s not dominated by the 3-year-olds. Shy of Blind Luck, Evening Jewel and Lookin’ at Lucky you’d be hard pressed to find a consensus of fans jazzed about the youngins (sidebar: I’m still interested in Tapitsfly, Bickersons and Maximus Ruler). Too bad all the purse money is still showered on the 3-year-olds.

This is the first time since I’ve started paying attention (mid-2006) where the real interest, both with fans and the media, is with older horses. Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, Quality Road, Blame, Rail Trip, General Quarters, Life at Ten, St. Trinians, Goldikova, Gio Ponti, Musket Man, Warrior’s Reward and Bribon are currently running and in good form (and health!). I Want Revenge, Mine That Bird and Careless Jewel look likely to get back to business in the near future. And Arson Squad, Bullsbay, Macho Again and Munnings could all get back to form at any moment.

That’s a helluva lot of nice horses and I feel like I’m missing a few! While I’m not entirely sure how it happened, I hope this trend of nice older horses staying in training is not a fluke.

Posted by dana on Jun 14 2010
Filed Under: I Want Revenge, General Quarters, Mine That Bird, 2010, Rachel Alexandra, Quality Road, Let Horses Race, :), Zenyatta, Jason Moran, Racing

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In Fact, He Raises a Good Point

One of the points used to prove that Jess Jackson is not a sportsman is that he stated that he wished the Woodward purse was a bit higher.

Is he being a persnickety rich guy or pointing out a genuine inequity in a purse structure that favors breeding your talented 3yos versus campaigning them at 4? He’s probably being a persnickety rich guy (not that I care, see points 1-3), but this also raises an interesting point.

Who among us has not bemoaned the retirement of a talented 3yo colt bound for the shed? Who among us doesn’t want to see our “stars” (because 3yo colts are the only ones marketed to a mainstream audience) race longer?

Let’s face it, there’s no financial incentive for owners to return their talented 3yo to the track and the purse difference between the $1M Travers or $1M Pennsylvania Derby vs the $500k Woodward couldn’t be a better example.

Our friend Frank at That’s Amore Stables elaborated brilliantly last year:

Consider this: on the same weekend that Big Brown contested the $2 million Kentucky Derby, the richest race at Churchill for four year-olds was the $500,000 Turf Classic.

At Pimlico, older males ran in the $250,000 Pimlico Special while Big Brown was cleaning up in the $1 million Preakness.

And in New York, while Big Brown tries to secure the Triple Crown in the $1 million Belmont, older males will tussle on the turf in the $400,000 Manhattan.

In other words, while Big Brown was running for $4 million in purses, your older horse — call him Old Grey — topped out at $1,150,000. Old Grey was running for less than 30 percent of the purses available to Big Brown.

While JJ is probably playing a little poker to see if he can get NYRA to sweeten the pot, he inadvertently highlights systemic measures in place to support the “bred to be a stallion” phenomena. Now there’s something to complain about!

Posted by dana on Aug 23 2009
Filed Under: 4yo, Industry, Big Brown, 2009, Sportsmanship, 3yo, Breeding, Let Horses Race, Retirement, NYRA, Racing

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Take That, Stallion Derby

Mine That Bird, pulling away from the stallions (Jamie Newell)

I’m not a big believer in the “racing gods”. However, if there are racing gods, I have to think they had something special in mind for the likes of the Dolphus Morrisons of the game when a gelding who fetched a mere $9,500 at Keeneland’s yearling auction won the Stallion Derby.

To make it even better, one of Mine That Bird’s owners Mark Allen, was quoted on the purchase of their unlikely winner:

We wanted a racehorse, not a stallion.

Take that, Stallion Derby!

Posted by dana on May 03 2009
Filed Under: :), Geldings, 2009, Mine That Bird, Sweet Revenge, Kentucky Derby, Breeding, Let Horses Race, Derby Trail, Racing

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Now THAT’s a Bias!

Rachel Alexandra, thoughtfully not screwing it up for the stallions (Sarah K. Andrew)

Just a few short days ago there was an excellent discussion going on here at GbG regarding the Oaks, the Derby and ultimately the biases that exist here in the good ole U S of A that generally preclude talented fillies from running in open company.

I believe all in attendance were somewhat in agreement that yes, Americans do have their biases about running fillies with colts, but just in case anyone is still in denial that fillies don’t get the chance because of the beliefs of their connections vs. their ability, I offer Exhibit A.

Dolphus Morrison, Rachel Alexandra’s breeder and co-owner, had this to say about running her in the Derby:

I think the Derby is a colts’ race and it’s there to showcase the horses that are the top potential stallions. It’s kind of stupid for some jerk with a filly to screw that up.

I guess this answers the question posed in the aforementioned discussion “Which guy stopped her from entering the Derby?” One Mr. Dolphus Morrison, who politely doesn’t want to “screw it up” for the potential stallions. How thoughtful!

Do you think you’d ever, EVER hear that kind of attitude in Europe if an owner had a filly as talented at Rachel Alexandra? No, you’d see them at the l’Arc collecting their whopping check and smiling for the cameras. Can we please stop pretending that it’s a matter of talent that keeps top notch fillies in restricted company and acknowledge that these types of attitudes exist?

Stay tuned for Oaks card picks either tonight or tomorrow morning and ~~Stallion~~ Kentucky Derby picks probably Saturday morning. But since I have a decent amount of handicapping to do, no doubt I’ll be doing some procrastination posting!

Posted by dana on Apr 30 2009
Filed Under: Sarah K. Andrew, Kentucky Oaks, 2009, Rachel Alexandra, 3yo, Kentucky Derby, Breeding, Let Horses Race, Grrrr, Derby Trail, Racing

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Thank you Ginger Punch

Ginger Punch prepping at Belmont for the 2008 Beldame (Jason Moran)

As usual, Frank is right. In a passage about Ginger Punch he points out:

But in the media or around the blogosphere, there was virtually no discussion of or appreciation for Stronach’s decision to bring the champ back or the horse’s consistent excellence.

Today it was announced that the champion 5yo mare with 6 G1 wins who was in the money in 20 of 21 starts (12/6/2) was retired. Annoying that there’s only a tiny article on DRF with nothing that I could find at the Bloodhorse or Thoroughbred Times.

The best race I saw live this year hands down was Ginger Punch’s win in the Go For Wand where she was completely boxed in and had a make a hole in the stretch. After the race I was standing by fence hoping to get a good photo of her as they took her back to the barn. As she walked by, the crowd really cheered for her. A man with a very professional looking camera was also on hand. He yelled the most sincere and gushing “you’re the best Ginger Punch, a real champion!” as she walked by. I’ve been lucky enough to see her run many times in person, and even when she didn’t win, she never disappointed.

In the clip of last year’s Go For Wand (below), Moss and Bailey (presumably) tell the story about how owner Frank Stronach wanted to retire her to the shed after her 3yo campaign in 2006. It took her 4 tries to break her maiden and then she won 1 mid level allowance and placed in one. Her trainer Bobby Frankel told Stronach that if he brought her back the following year that he promised he could get her a G1. How about 3, including the Breeders’ Cup Distaff AND the overwhelming winner of 2007 Eclipse award for Older Female!

Many thanks to Stronach, Frankel and most of all, Ginger Punch!

2008 Personal Ensign: