Nice head. Sway backed IMO or a bit high in the rump (never seen him in person though, so going by pictures) and a little too straight in the shoulder for my liking. To be honest, he reminds me a lot of Storm Cat himself conformation wise, although I think that A.P. Indy has better legs than Storm Cat. I'm no expert though.

Dylan has been entered for the Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway next weekend as well as the JCGC. Obviously the 9f there would be insufficient and the race would amount to little more than a public experiment (although that would be on polytrack, and my experience of that surface is that almost any horse acts on it). O'Brien was suggesting the BCC straight after the Irish Champion, so they must have some idea of his ability to handle the dirt...although one would imagine that the plan has also been devised so as to keep Hurricane Run and Dylan Thomas apart in the BCT.

I don't understand the thinking here that running in Kentucky over Polytrack would give them any clue as to how he would handle real dirt?

I couldn't agree more.

Completely agree. Havent seen a horse yet in the US who excels on both dirt and poly. But have seen many who just flat out dont handle it or dirt duds who like it.
I guess they wanna keep them apart. Or they feel the transition from grass to poly to dirt is a better plan than just grass to dirt.

There's hardly a real sample size. There's only one track that has had Polytrack for any period of time and not too many good horses have raced there ( in fact just about zero ). I'm sure there will be some that are fine on both.

The point is if they want to see if Dylan Thomas can handle the dirt you would think they would try a true dirt surface.

I realize the sample size is limited, I'm not an idiot.
But I'm using the stakes races run on it at Turfway as a basis for that.
It seems to me that using the highets quality races would give you a decent base on which to examine that.
Last year's KY Cup day gave us nothing that has returned at any level on the dirt.
And the Lanes End(spiral jim beam galleryfurniture, etc) day gave us nothing either.
The inverse would be that both lawyer Ron and Lemons detested it and achieved grade one status away from it after not being able to hit the board on it.
If you look at the two big days which Turfway has hosted, and all those stakes, and the fact that noone who ran well in those stakes came back and did squat on the dirt, I'd say its a rational statement.

High Cotton would actually be the poster child for Polytrack at this point, how scary is that?

If Polytrack keeps horses safer, that is all I need to know. People knock it, but the way they train horses today is very difficult on them.

The fear is that these synthetic surfaces will make racing too predictable, but that has not proven to be the case.

Now that it is in at Keeneland and CA, that will change. There will be a bunch of top 3yr olds next spring that are polytrack horses.

You think? I disagree. You really think that trainers/owners are going to send their top stock to prep on a surface that is night and day from what the main event will be run on?

Why would anyone in the east or the midwest prep at keeneland when they can simply go to new york or florida?

Whats going to be interesting is out west. How many will race in that big Gr 1 for two year olds now that it will be on polytrack? I know if i had a good two year old or rising three year old, i would simply wait for Santa anita. I wonder how many of the big trainers will see it the same way.

Star Craft absolutely loved polytrack.
that worked out real well last year.

that crap has about as much in commom with dirt as I do with that fatas* michal moore.

KY Cup day is probably a better indicator of how well a horse will do next out on turf than it is for dirt.


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