Deaf Frogs

[Michael D.]

deb,
TG\'s preps and derby were amazing. his belmont and travers runs, however, were walkovers in very slow time. two of the slowest runnings in recent memory. i think he got beat up pretty good when he tried the older horses in the fall. you think he was better than ap indy or easy goer? .... jameela was a great one no doubt. just took a look at her record. WOW!

[Delmar Deb]

Take a look at Gulch\'s lifetime record...one maiden race, a NW1, and all the rest graded stakes!  

It was such a shame that she died giving birth to her 2nd foal - what a family - on the track and in the breeding shed!

As for AP Indy and Easy Goer, I was impressed with each one time only - Easy Goer\'s Belmont (and after I found out about his ankles I was even more impressed); and AP\'s Breeder\'s Cup.  Every morning at 7 am for 7 days prior to the BC that horse was in the paddock stall with a bemused Drysdale and a strained Will Farish.  I made the remark to someone that Farish looked like his whole empire depended on that horse winning the BC - only to later find out that I was right.  He was in serious financial straits at the time with Lane\'s End (in spite of the Queen\'s visits) and needed the win and the sale to pull him out.

As for the horse, if you ever wanted to visually see what a horse should like when prepped to run the race of his life, that is what Drysdale demonstrated during that week, and the horse on track.

However, the compendium of their individual races during their 3 year old years did not get my attention or admiration the way Thunder Gulch did.  Regardless of his numbers in the final races, he had a campaign that rivals any other 3 year old in recent memory.

[Michael D.]

Ron,
good to see the gene is not dead. what is the name of your stallion?

[Michael D.]

deb,
very interesting stuff about ap, thanks for sharing it. weren\'t you impressed with EG\'s 1:32 and change mile at aqu, running four wide under a hand ride no less?

[Ron G.]

Prospected -- his dam is a double copy mare named \"Heraklia.\"

[Michael D.]

Ron,
street cry family. i bet SC in the derby futures book that year, only to see him get hurt a few weeks before the race. good luck with him.

[Michael D.]

jerry,
i have though for a while that your victory gallop had the gene (through glass house). there was something very ususual about the way that horse ran so fast for so long in his whitney and foster wins (i\'m pretty sure you can\'t blame it on drugs). two of the greatest performances i have ever seen.

[NoCarolinaTony]

Michael D.

Excellent stuff. Been reading about this for quite some time. Thought I was the only one looking at this. Look forward to meeting you At Keeneland. Next week.

JB are you going to Keeneland at all?

Nc Tony

[NoCarolinaTony]

JB,

There is a paper on this I found on the web. I will try to find it again. There seems to be some merit to this at least theoritically. (as is most things until proven false IE Weapons of MSD).

I have a hard copy in my office.

NC Tony

[Delmar Deb]

Yes - but the problem with Easy Goer was that he only won in New York.  TG ran and won in Florida, California, Kentucky, and New York...which is my point - he fought them all, all year, and with the exception of the Preakness (where he finished a close 2nd to his stablemate - 1 1/2 lengths?) - he won all the 3 y.o. dances!

that takes guts, stamina and talent!

[TGJB]

Tony-- One of the posters on this board has invited me to join him Bluegrass weekend. I don\'t think I can do it, but I\'m thinking about it.

[NoCarolinaTony]

TGJB,

I will be at Keeneland the first two weekends, and certainly the last weekend if the Saratoga meet. WOuld enjoy meeting the \"Guru\" of Figs.

Regards,
NC Tony

[kev]

I\'ve been thinking when I should take the 1 1/2 hour trip to KEE this year, hell we\'ll all go. Would\'nt this be cool, to have a TG vs. rag\'s contest for the people who use the data, play the same races for a two or three day period. Do it few times out of the year for bragging rights. Or I guess people could just enter the NTRA contest, guess it would work out all the same.

[TGJB]

Kev-- you have some shot to get the Ragozin guys to agree to a head-to-head contest. As in none. If you can get that going on any serious scale, I\'ll sponsor it-- free sheets for a year to the winner, or $1,000 in the unlikely event it\'s a Raggie.

Tony et al-- if I go to Keenland (now had another invitation for the same weekend), I\'ll announce it here, and try and set something up where we can all meet for a drink.

[Michael D.]

speaking of the \"large heart gene\", haskin has a pretty good article on the bloodhorse.com site. i posted a while ago that i thought HF had a big heart. as haskin points out, the gene probably came through one sum (through princequillo). there has been a lot of debate about the northern dancer/slewpy nick. some have argued that HF has a big heart because of this nick, but many experts will tell you it had to come through the bottom side of his family only.