Proud Accolade

[JimP]

I have a pattern question. PA ran a very fast race at 2 fairly early in the year, was obviously set back big time by the effort. Now he\'s 3 and ran what looked like a decent race on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what the figure was and how much of a recovery it represented.

So my question is: How rare would it be for a 3 year old coming off that big isolated figure some months ago, to recover back to that top, or surpass it early in his 3-year-old season? And in general, how do you read a pattern like this in a young horse?

[TGJB]

In general, it\'s not that surprising that they come back to isolated tops at some point if they are given time off, and if they don\'t do it first or second off a layoff it\'s a bad sign. If they do it off a layoff or a non-effort it is tough to know what it means until you see a race and sometimes two following it-- as a rule of thumb, healthy early season 3yos should be running to at least previous tops no worse than every other race.

Sometimes distance complicates the issue.

Some trainers try to stretch their speed oriented 2yos out because the owner has derby fever. The horse could be developing, but that development gets masked by the progressively longer distances the horses are asked to run (that they don\'t want).

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

I agree class. By the way, astute selection on Closing Arguement. Tough beat. That second place horse in that race isn\'t gonna make the Derby but the odds were right this past time.

Pround Accolade is gonna be fine as long as he doesnt have to run a second turn, hes too tired by then. Pletcher will probably drop him into the Fountain of Youth, but unless the vets are having a good day, I don\'t see him doing anything but taking money.

[Michael D.]

he is a one turn horse. i think that covers it.

[Michael D.]

ctc,
i could be wrong, but i think PA is going one turn for the rest of the year. the one turn 7f and 1m races at GP, Bel, and Aqu seem perfect. in fact, with his speed, they might even want to consider the 6f straightaway at dubai (next year though). what is that worth, $2 mio?

[fasteddie]

He should stay sprinting, and point for the Derby Trial, and then the Met Mile; as a 3yo, he will get in light, have a grade 1 against older horses under his belt, and have the last 6 months of the year to find a 2-turn race against 3yo\'s (Jim Dandy??)

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

\"We\'ll consider the Fountain of Youth and Louisiana Derby for both Proud Accolade... even though stretching Proud Accolade out to a mile and one-eighth in the Fountain of Youth is not something I really want to do,\" said Pletcher.

When the trainer doubts his own horse you know you\'ve burned your Derby futures money.

This horse has as much chance of gettin real ground as Officer did.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/62565.html

CtC