Interesting Developments

[DaTruth]

Originally Posted by CSC

His last race was not visually impressive, nor was it impressive from a beyer standpoint (96). The call here for a horseplayer if you are considering him for the derby is will he be better on traditional dirt than on syth or turf. He's by Empire Maker not unlike David Caroll's Acoma, she eventually had to prove the same questions by winning on turf, syth, and then dirt. But no one knows absolutely if he will be good enough. Like someone said in this thread alot is said about synth horses going backward on dirt, what about the flip side synth horses improving on dirt?

I don't buy the argument that POTN is an automatic toss because (1) horses generally run well on only one type of surface (dirt vs. Poly vs. sod), (2) POTN has racked up victories on the artificial surfaces, and (3) his SoCal races have been slow. If POTN's SoCal races have not been that fast, doesn't that leave open the possibility that he may be faster on dirt? I Want Revenge barely lost to POTN in two slow Poly races, but trounced his competition when switched to the dirt. Papa Clem barely lost to POTN in a slow Poly race and came back to run second in the La Derby and win the Arkansas Derby. The same argument used against POTN now would have been used with greater measure against I Want Revenge prior to the Gotham and Papa Clem prior to the La Derby.

The stakes horses shipping from Santa Anita off Cushion Track/Pro Ride races did well in dirt starts last spring. Zenyatta won the Apple Blossom, Tiago won the Oaklawn Handicap, Circular Quay won the New Orleans Handicap, Intangaroo won the Humana Distaff, and Giant Gizmo won the Alysheba on the Oaks undercard. Granted, that is a small sample, but those aren't bad results.