The Florida Derby
I just watched a huge horse win the Florida Derby -- Quality Road, who is about 17H (and who made the rest of the fired look like ponies). He ran close to the lead, took over, and when Dunkirk (an Unbridled's Song out of an A.P Indy mare) hooked him at the top of the stretch and looked him in the eye, Quality Road dug in, came back, and won going away -- and set a track record. Dunkirk finished 2nd in his third race (he may not have enough graded earnings to get into the Derby).
Quality Road is an Elusive Quality (the sire of Smarty Jones), so on the top of his pedigree, his stamina is suspect (even though his grandsire Gone West is a grandson of Sectretariat -- in fact, if you look at his conformation photos, he looks just like a dark bay Secretariat). But he's out of a Strawberry Road (Aus) mare, who is out of an Alydar mare, so he's got stamina on the bottom. He's got three wins (two of them Graded) out of three starts -- not too shabby.
We shall see on the first Saturday in May....
Quality Road is an Elusive Quality (the sire of Smarty Jones), so on the top of his pedigree, his stamina is suspect (even though his grandsire Gone West is a grandson of Sectretariat -- in fact, if you look at his conformation photos, he looks just like a dark bay Secretariat). But he's out of a Strawberry Road (Aus) mare, who is out of an Alydar mare, so he's got stamina on the bottom. He's got three wins (two of them Graded) out of three starts -- not too shabby.
We shall see on the first Saturday in May....