Quote:
Originally Posted by Calzone Lord
Our grass horses and grass racing remains 3rd rate at best. This fact is proven every single year in Dubai...where grass horses from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, all ship and win...while our horses are starting to flirt with going a combined 0-for-100.
We did absolutely dominate on dirt, in Dubai.
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So long as dirt racing is the primary focus of racing in this country, our top horses race on dirt. Our top grass males are typically imports or American-bred horses that didn't make it on dirt. Not that it is a predictor of success on turf, but the following are top class dirt runners who were turf bred and have become leading "grass sires": Lemon Drop Kid, Smart Strike, Ghostzapper, Rock Hard Ten, Medaglia d'Oro, Arch, More Than Ready and Hard Spun.
Even a Hall of Famer like Lure was not tried on turf until short-priced defeats in the Lexington and Riva Ridge in the spring of his 3YO season. This past year, it would have been interesting with his pedigree to have seen Verrazano (by More Than Ready from a good Alexander female family) tried on turf; I would not be surprised to see him become a useful turf sire down the road.