Secret Circle pedigree column

[Calzone Lord]

I read this earlier today.

I don't pay much attention to pedigree after a horses first race outside of special situations like 1st turf or 1st route when you might be able to get an edge...and I've already got into how Secret Circle's pedigree looks route and development from all angles ... which is only so cool to me because he's so fast and precocious.

I take a different approach to pedigree than this guy, but this was a pretty good write-up if you have time to kill and these things don't bore you.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ree?source=rss

Dixieland Band as the broodmare sire is really the place you find the most speed in Secret Circle's pedigree .. and Dixieland Band was also the broodmare sire of both Street Sense and Monarchos ... two horses who won the Ky Derby by clear margins with furious late rallies and good figures.

Eight Belles had that 'son of Unbridled and daughter of Dixieland Band cross' like Secret Circle. But in Eight Belles case ... the son of Unbridled was the wickedly fast Unbridled's Song. In SC's case the son pf Unbridled was plodding router Eddington.

In Eight Belles case the Dixieland Band is to a Mr. Prospector mare. In Secret Circle's case, the Dixieland Band is to a Smarten mare with Forego's sire Forli on the bottom. Forli was a 15-furlong ace in South America.

That's even a lot deeper than I ever go looking at a pedigree. I followed Secret Cirlce's sire, I followed his dam's racing career, and I followed the dam's half sib Really Polish's racing career.

It's crazy to think a horse with that breeding is capable of going 20 4/5ths head-to-head with Trinniburg ... dueling Trinniburg to a walk while running a faster 1/4 mile pace fig than BC Sprint horses the next day ... and still win with a Beyer in the 90's. He's basically a proven super precocious speed sprinter with the pedigree of a deep closing developing router. Very unusual.

I'm rooting for him as a fan. He's done a whole lot of traveling. He's run very well sprinting, he's run well enough long. He ran super on the synthetic. He has three two-turn routes under him now. Hopefully you see a leap forward next time though, because he's going to have to do better than that.

[Travis Stone]

All 3-year-olds during this time of year are looked at in the context of whether or not they are capable of winning the Kentucky Derby. Secret Circle does have to run better next time, but at the end of the day, he's obviously very talented and there are a lot of races down the road with his name on them if he doesn't find his groove on the Derby Trail.

[Hoist Her Flag]

Even more amazing that Secret Circle has not been able to hook a paceless field. He tracked longview drive. then faced Scatman twice and looks like he will face him again. The fact that he dug in late in the last race considering he has been in training since September without a break. He worked out in December and didn't run in the Hollywood futurity, Ran in January and keeps working 6F and 7F bullets in the morning. I would like to see him be the lone speed and open up a four length lead with slow fractions. He will finally run a bad race and people will say he's a sprinter. He has been in training for 8 straight months.

[Thunder Gulch]

I know he's running well in two turn races, but he sure looks like he's gone as far as he can. He can have a great year at 7-8.5, but the big prizes are at 10.