Vineyard Haven Sold...

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Linny

They have been reasonably successful in Europe but they have a "season" where we don't. Apart from some minor regional stuff on PolyTrack, there is not racing over the winter. The season goes from April to October. In April a Euro horse coming up to the big races has been away for a few months followed by legging up and possibly a start before the Guineas, the first Classic. Many of the horses in the Guineas are making their seasonal debut. They are all at the same disadvantage in terms of lack of racing and all make the classics in about the same manner.
Here we begin the 4 month run-up to the Derby on Jan 1st. By the time we get to the Derby our colts have several races often tough "character builders" in advance of the big day.
While you can win British classics "off the farm" it has not worked here in the modern era.

This is sort of what I was referring to earlier when I said that it might be as much about how they are trained as it is where. The vast majority of the success that the Dubai owners have had has been in Europe and perhaps out of habit, they have had a hard time adjusting to the differences needed to prepare a horse for racing in the United States as opposed to Europe. In addition to the things you listed above, there also is the different style of racing. American dirt racing is slanted more towards speed than European grass racing. It's a totally different style of training needed to win the different types of races. One that they obviously haven't mastered as far as American racing goes.