Correct - all 4 of you.

Cheap claimer who loved to win - climbed up the ranks to win over $1 million and finish 2nd in the Breeders Cup.



Name him.

Classic example of why Claiborne, though perhaps good for "breeding", is bad for racing.

After getting pummeled in the Woodward, he tried valiantly in the BC Classic, only to weaken for 5th. Desperate for a win against older horses, because they had no intention of bringing him out for a 4yo year, they wheel him back in the Cigar Mile and predictably gets dusted again. What a way to end a career.

After not being thrilled by his initial crops they dumped him off on Japan. Ironically, a similar career both trackwise and studwise as his sire, Forty Niner.

As a side note, I enjoyed how they avoided the Derby, then scratched from the Preakness because of crowd concerns, yet saw fit to run on the Belmont Stakes undercard (where a Triple Crown was at stake).

Bluesthestandard. Just thought of him the other day, and how pathetic his connections were to let him slide down back to bottom level claimers.

Correct.

Bluesthestandard?

They were so worried about this guy at Saratoga for the Travers, that they put him in a van from his barn to the stakes barn right behind the paddock. They also got permission to leave the paddock early...Nice to have those connections...

By the way - whoever trainer Mike Mudaris is ... that man doesn't screw around.

Claim a horse for 16K - it wins and runs a 99 Beyer - and next month you run him back for a 10k tag.

Pretty obvious that Bluesthestandard had to have a million things wrong with him even from the start of his career.

How could you forget about Lemons Forever? I can't think of a single horse/race that threw you over the edge quite like that one!

Name this claiming colt ....

John Henry? He was a gelding.

Correct.

Not according to the PP's or chart.

He's even still listed as a colt in the offical chart of his 2nd New York race that season -- which was also his first turf race. The PP cut above was from the race prior to his first turf race.




9th place finisher Data Link was claimed out of that race ... he wasn't.

Got shot down on that one. Good thing you didn't tee off on me too bad.

I don't deserve it.

Interestingly .... this is the first race in his PP's where's he's listed as a gelding ...



I doubt they gelded him after a 15 length turf win... perhaps, his entire turnaround was the result of gelding him?

Lots of "high end" stables in there. Harbor View, Wygod, Seth Hancock etc. Of course $35k was a pretty solid price in '78.

From my extensive research (Google), I surmised that John Henry was gelded as a 2yo before he ever raced.

They fine you in CA $1000 nowadays for failing to report your horse as a gelding.

Hard to believe that he was unable to show his true ability while being ridden by David Copling and Alonzo Guajardo.

Yeah ... it seems like the consensus from Google is that he was gelded before he ever raced. That was clearly not the case though.

Debut form from Jefferson Downs race:




Chart:




I would guess all of the bios and write-ups on him are wrong - and that he was actually gelded right around the time he made that gigantic form reversal in New York.

Doug, you would have liked Jefferson Downs. It was a bullring located in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. Purses were awful. A real classy joint. The track couldn't afford a bugler, so instead, a recording of Camptown Races was played over the PA system between races.

Sounds a lot like Erie's old Commodore Downs.