[Rupert Pupkin]

Cindago could have been a great horse if they didn't ruin him. He hadn't run in 8 months, he had never run two turns before, and he was eligible for nwx1. So where did they run him off the 8 months layoff? They ran him in a Grade III stakes race, going long against Brother Derek. He went head and head in :45 2/5 off an 8 months layoff, going long for the first time. What is so amazing is that he won the race. It was incredible. Even seasoned stakes horses who have run long don't win if they go head and head in :45 2/5. Cindago ran an incredible race. The problem was he ran too good. It was such a hard race on him that it killed him and he never ran again. What a crazy spot to bring a horse back in off an 8 month layoff. He was eligible for non-winners other than and he had never run past 6 furlongs.

They were right that he was good enough to win but it doesn't do you any good to win the battle but lose the war. If you ask a horse to do something that he's not ready to do, you can ruin the horse forever.

He was my favorite horse at the Barrett's March Sale in 2005. I thought that maybe we could get him for $300,000 or so until I found out that a few of the big-time guys really liked him too. He ended up going for $900,000.

By the way, not only did Cindago beat Brother Derek and Bob and Jon in that stakes race, but when he broke his maiden he beat Latent Heat and Point Determined. Those 3 horses(Cindago, Latent Heat, and Point Determined) ran 1,2,3 in that maiden race. That was probably the strongest maiden race of the Santa Anita meet. Latent Heat actually passed Cindago by about half a length at the 1/8th pole and Cindago fought back and beat him.