Dumdolphin up to their old tricks again
 

Just read they are aiming Desert Party for all one turn races the rest of the year, with the Forego the next big target, followed by the BC dirt mile.

Do they seriously believe this horse is a sprinter?????????

Regal Ransom makes his comeback in the Suburban.

They are hard to figure out sometimes.

I was reading that article and I wonder if they even realize that the Vanderbilt is now a Grade 1.

Godolphin can't win, ever, really...right...

Because if they came out tomorrow and said Desert Party will be aimed for the classic races, over 9 and 10 furlongs, people would be on here saying that they are crazy, his two wins in 2010 were over six and seven furlongs, and he did both of them easy, he seems to enjoy sprinting...etc...

Come on.

They have won the Italian Derby twice and the English Derby once...yeah, I know...

I hope they hire you.

Godolphin did win 4 grade 1 races at the Spa last year if memory serve correct so they must do some things right...right?

Scat

Godolphin has plenty of terrific horses and I love seeing them run. However, none of that makes them exempt from critical analysis.

They have spent a crazy amount of money for horses. I should hope they win some big races. However, their return on investment isn't exactly something to be proud of. Perhaps this doesn't matter to them. But, that doesn't change the bottom line.

Desert Party's PPs would hardly give you an indication that he's a router.

NT

But analyzing their decision to keep Desert Party sprinting, based on what he has done in 2010...it certainly seems the most logical. He might not be a G1 sprinter, but he surely has a better chance for success on that stage then stretching out, as NTamm said, on his PP.

Seems logical to me to find a horse's strengths.

Next maybe Godolphin can run less dirt horses on synth. It's pretty weird that they spend as much money as they do for dirt horses and then build a new $10 billion dollar track and put in two turf courses.

I think as bad as the sprinters are right now, and off of DP's last he is likely going to be a G1 sprinter very soon.

He runs like at least like a miler. He's bred to go long, and watching him run, it seems like he's going to be a better horse going longer. By longer 8.5 to 9 furlongs being logical.

There's always the chance he has some sort of issue unknown to me, but I'm pretty confident he would stand a better chance of winning races if he doesn't have to face crack sprinters.

See you guys, I'm right!

:tro:

The thing is who are the crack sprinters? There aren't any. The list of horses they really have to fear in a race like the Forego is short because no one knows if Majesticperfection can get 7fs (it seems like a possibility) and Atta Boy Roy is not the same horse going a furlong farther.

If I had a one-run horse like DP and had a choice between trying to force him into going long (which by the way he's 1-4 @ a mile or more) or cutting him back I'd opt for the latter, especially this year given what's out there.

NT

They are also separating their horses into divisions, and obviously they feel horses like Regal Ransom and Girolamo are better suited for the longer races than Desert Party. Since they want to win Grade 1s, Desert Party's best chance to do this is, in their opinion, in sprints...especially relative to their other runners.

where is songster? lol

I only know of one crack sprinter and how can we trust him off allowance wins and a giant 117 at PM?

To me that seems like a perfectly logical race in which to point the horse.

Where is gm10, this thread was made for that poster.

Godolphin has about 5 horses that ought to point to the Mile. Gayego, Regal Ransom, Desert Party, Giralomo and perhaps even Vineyard Haven.

Whoever they decide to put in the Classic and Sprint at the last minute will probably be automatic tosses.

Of course, if you're really optimistic, perhaps Vale Of York, Atomic Rain, and West Side Bernie will take the pressure off in finding a Classic hopeful.

When was the last time West Side Bernie even ran? Has he run since Derby '09?

He was demolished in a 7f race in Dubai over the winter. The winner was ex-American sprinter Barbecue Eddie.

I think Giralomo is totally legit Classic horse if he improves off of last year. Regal Ransom might be a cut below the top horses but he is usefull enough going long, I think the pace might get 2 hot for him in a mile race.... Gayego IMO SUCKS. Desert Party is all the sudden one of the top sprinters around, IMO,

Giralomo is definitely bred to stay 10f, but he was a rush job last year, and he'll be a rush job this year, too.

Though she was highly successful last year, I think their campaign with Music Note was all over the place. She ran like a short horse in the Phipps, so they panic and cut her back in distance, she crushes the Ballerina, and so they step her back up in trip instead of perhaps targeting the FM sprinter Eclipse (cuz they had little shot at Zenyatta's title). Sounds foolish to criticize given Music Note's two Grade 1 scores, but I think those victories might have been in spite of Godolphin's efforts.

I can totally see Giralomo going through the same sort of ringer and coming up goose eggs. Not really sure what he's targeting anyways. He's being given a tall order if he's supposed to show up in the Woodward and JCGC off the bench. Hopefully there's an allowance race in there somewhere.

I think there's a world of difference between a 7f race and a 6f race, so I won't put Desert Party in the top sprint group as far as the BC is concerned. A campaign like Kodiak Kowboy or Bribon last year could get him an Eclipse, however.

Vineyard Heaven, if sound and healthy (never a given with these guys), would absolutely destroy Desert Party in a 6-7 furlong race. It would be like PG1985 going up against DrugS in a 2 month handicapping contest.

I will NOT get into another Godolphin fight.
I will NOT get into another Godolphin fight.
I will NOT...

Have you tried your hand in the Z/RA/QR fight?

Nah haven't done that one.

You know I'm Italian... I need to get really fired up in order to have a good fight. :p

There's no passion involved when I truly like all 3.

I'm in limbo, Charlie. Hell I'm not even gonna start a PVal fight.

Maybe something else will come up, huh? :D

I would defeat Drugs, I am very confident of this.

Why wouldn't he be a sprinter?

He's made six starts going 7F and under and he's won five of them..

Considering many of their past decisions... It's a stroke of genius for Godolphin to realize that he is a sprinter..

You are probably right.

I'm not really sure what makes people think he's a sprinter, other than pretty circumstantial PPs.

Of those six starts going 7 or less, three were as a two year old, after he sold for 2+ million at a 2yo in training sale. None of those three starts were particularly great, though indeed one or two of those were pretty nice. Notice the company he kept in that third start? VH, Cribnote and Munnings? Those are all three quality sprinters, and DP wanted NOTHING to do with that field. Yeah, he did have some trouble, but he was pretty close early and got outrun pretty badly late.

Next up, he makes an early 3yo debut in the desert and wins going 7f, by 1/2 a length over Regal Ransom.

Three weeks later, he makes his next start going 1m, in what is very obviously his best performance. Again facing their apparent star router from the group, Regal Ransom, DP wins by nearly five.

Six weeks later, in what is clearly his second best performance, he goes 9 in their big 3yo race, and loses by about half a length to Regal Ransom. 15 lengths back to third.

Up to this point, it could not be any clearer that this is not a 6f horse.

The wheels fall off in the Derby, but if I recall correctly, he did suffer an injury and was not seen again until this year. He won some crappy 6f race where he overmatched his field, then ran up the track going a mile. He trailed, or close to it, throughout the entire race, which signifies to me that the distance had nothing to do with it. He just didn't run that day, or had something go amiss (besides having bad connections).

The Philly race? Who cares. That field was ugly.

Next you have his breeding. Sired by a World Cup winner that also sired the greatest staying mare in history, I see little indication in his sires side that would make me think he's a sprinter.

His damsire won the Preakness and the Belmont. Granted, the females in his family were awful, but that would indicate more of a soundness difficulty than a distance problem.

It seems pretty obvious to me, also, when you watch him run, that he's not a sprinter.

That's not completely fair.

Desert Party crushed Vineyard Haven one start earlier in the Sanford. As for his Hopeful debacle, he came out of it with an injury, which is why he made no further starts as a 2yo.

True enough.

However, VH steadied at the 1/2 mile pole, making his second career start, which is why I discounted that race.

And yeah, he does seem to be injury prone.

Maybe another reason to not sprint him.

I don't agree that it's so cut and dry easy to see that he is not a sprinter.. but we shall see, his next start should give a clearer indication.

Street Cry himself ran fairly well while sprinting as a 2yr old.. just missed the Del Mar Futurity..

You have to dig deep into the damside, but there's some relation to multiple graded sprint winner Good And Tough..

Well, I'm not entirely saying that he cannot sprint. I just don't think he can be a top level sprinter, while I do believe it's possible he can do much better going longer.

I just see him as having much more upside going 8-9f.

Was just looking at the Holy Bull chart from '09 because there's a horse in for $5k on Friday at MTH that went off favored, and the winner was in for $30 last week. What an incredibly key negative race.

SARATOGA SINNER: Injured, off, lost 8 races before winning a $30k N3L at CD last week
BEAR'S ROCKET: Has been dreadful in 5 losses including a 50 length drubbing in the A Little Warm race yesterday
WEST SIDE BERNIE: Ran ok in the Wood Memorial but otherwise has been clobbered
BEETHOVEN: 3rd in the FoY, has not run since
STATELY CHARACTER: has run 14 times since without hitting the board, with typical comments being "No Factor" "Outrun" "Trailed Throughout"
BRUCE N AUTUMN: Switched to turf thereafter, didn't matter; has lost 6 in a row without hitting the board
DANGER TO SOCIETY: Went off favored, has run 5 times since and has not hit the board despite being 7/5 or lower 3 times; most recently was in a $15k N3L at Philly, goes for $5k on Friday at MTH
ROCKLAND: Finished 2nd for $25k N2L a couple weeks ago at DEL as the favorite, was crushed in his other 5 starts
EL CRESPO: Switched to turf thereafter, won Palm Beach next out; been serviceable but erratic in 12 starts since with no wins
IDOL MAKER: Ran once since in an allowance at BEL, finished last at 5-1

Then it's a good thing his year-end goal is the Dirt Mile. All of this is about them using a 7f race as a prep? The article also said they're going to use the Kelso, which apparently has been moved to dirt, as the final prep.

NT