hi jerry
you might not want to presume soundness problems as headley starts his horses late. his horses are usually more sound than most for that very reason.
Plus your comment about Trotamondo \"He did win the Triple Crown in Chile, but those races were for "spring" 3yos, and probably would not come up as big figures relative to these older stakes horses.\" is a little condescending. The last Chilean Triple crown winner was Lido Palace who raced in the US quite well. In 2001, Lido Palace won the Whitney Handicap (gr. ) at Saratoga and the Woodward Stakes (gr. 1) at Belmont Park. He was second to Albert the Great in the Suburban Handicap (gr.2) and was runner-up to Duckhorn in the Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (gr. 2).
Tmon-- The comment was about spring 3yo figures vs. older stake figures, and has nothing to do at all with a) what a different horse did, b) as an older horse, c) when Frankel got him, d) in terms of accomplishment, not figures.
High-- yeah, Headley is patient. But FIVE??? Why would he do that? (The old racetrack joke is, because he was so fast we couldn\'t catch him).
And as long as we are talking about ROTW, I have to admit that Friedman caught something in his analysis that I missed. Keep On Punching definitely looks better when you take into account his history on off tracks, and is a use at the price.
Are all 3 year old spring figures weak? The horse\'s record in Chile couldn\'t be better. His breeding is comparable to the best in the USA. His figure on his return needs only a slight improvement to win the race.
Tmon-- Take a look at 3yo spring figures compared to those of older horses, at any level. And that\'s before taking into account any differences in overall ability between Chile and the U.S.
None of which means that horse can\'t win, and this is not the toughest older horse stake there ever was. But it\'s likely that his first effort here was about what he was running there, and that he will need a significant new top to win.
Well it looks like he ran a new top? Thing is other then being born in Chile he was American bred. A Mr Prospector sire over a Raise A Native mare.
Right. Plus it didn\'t hurt that the horses that had better figures going into the race either were too close to or moved too early into the fast pace, or had wide trips.
Bob