He's a nice looking colt with a good first effort and I'm sure he learned a lot (feels like I'm repeating a Nicanor observation from his first race). My eyes went straight to him after the break. Didn't need to be told that was Lentenor and that's before I could see the silks. The latest yearling looks more like Dynaformer right? Less Barbaro/La Ville Rouge-esque. It looked to me like before Lentenor got clear in the stretch he had to check a bit behind that chestnut but I wasn't sure from the angle. Some 2yos wig out when they get into traffic on their first start don't they? He actually kept on truckin' and I'm sure Julien didn't wanna bust a gut to finish a closer 3rd. Like Nicanor, you feel like you can see him doing better next time for sure.

Just working off of that little bit we saw, he looks promising. I heard Matz had planned earlier starts that didn't pan out--I assume they didn't fill. Why was he 8-1 when Nicanor took lots of $$ ? Hasn't he always or almost always been favored? 'Fans of Barbaro' and all.

I think it's great that there's a colt some fans have followed literally from birth, through training, onto the track. The reality of the racing game. And it's good for racing, to have fan-friendly faces. Nicanor trumps Mullins.

Mullins? :zz: Where does he figure in this? Something about I Want Revenge?

i'd imagine she means that it's better to have a positive angle in the news (people seem intent on following barbaros little brothers) rather than just negatives such as a douche bag cheater posing as a trainer.

I think that's exactly it. Bloodhorse's semi-regular blog about Barbaro's brothers (and forthcoming sister) gets filled with lots of "horses are pretty" comments, but it's nice to see so many people enthusiastic, rather than focusing on Barbaro's tragedy.

I had a coworker just last week say how she hates horse racing after what happened to Barbaro. And I tried explaining, horses break down in their stalls, laminitis takes healthy horses, too, and his death focused a lot of attention and research money on it, blah blah blah, but forget it; in her head it's mean to make horsies run in circles and that's it. (Of course, to her the Central Park carriages are also barbaric, but when I asked her where she thinks what would happen to all these former pacers and Amish farm horses if their job was taken away she blithely said, "oh, someone could put them out in a field somewhere" and I just about slammed my head into a street lamp in despair.)

So yay for Lentenor's first race. Here's hoping he keeps progressing.