Mubtaahij - Is he a real Derby threat?

[Easy Goer Otis]

Thanks for posting these videos My Miss Storm Cat!

Really impressive looking colt. I hope we see him over here soon.

Cheers,

Otis

[Kitan]

Simply put, no. Aside from the Uruguayan there was no quality in this race. The field was comparative with the recent American preps worth no Derby points. He's also got no dirt pedigree to speak of, so it'd be a guess to say he can do it against the best. Better ones have come over and done absolutely nothing, and there's no reason to believe he would be more competitive than those. Unless he does something magical in the UAE Derby I wouldn't even consider him in any of my wagers.

[PatCummings]

Originally Posted by Kitan

Simply put, no. Aside from the Uruguayan there was no quality in this race. The field was comparative with the recent American preps worth no Derby points. He's also got no dirt pedigree to speak of, so it'd be a guess to say he can do it against the best. Better ones have come over and done absolutely nothing, and there's no reason to believe he would be more competitive than those. Unless he does something magical in the UAE Derby I wouldn't even consider him in any of my wagers.

By no means do I think Mubtaahij is the next coming, but it's not as if the rest of the field was anywhere close to the top two. Mubtaahij was 13 lengths clear of the third placed horse.

And as for his dirt pedigree, how much does it really matter when he has three wins and was beaten a nose in a fourth race over a deep, sandy surface? At this point, I think it's pretty clear that he gets over dirt.

[Kitan]

If a G1 turf winner beats N1X quality on the dirt, is it fair to say he can handle the dirt based solely on that evidence? Of course that is purposely an extreme example, but my point is that until he beats substance on the surface I'm not convinced.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by Kitan

If a G1 turf winner beats N1X quality on the dirt, is it fair to say he can handle the dirt based solely on that evidence? Of course that is purposely an extreme example, but my point is that until he beats substance on the surface I'm not convinced.

It's kind of tough to question whether a horse with multiple dirt wins can handle dirt.

[Kitan]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

It's kind of tough to question whether a horse with multiple dirt wins can handle dirt.

I question whether he is going to be effective enough on the surface to win a quality race like the Kentucky Derby. Yes, he has obviously done okay on it to date, but the point of my last post was that it doesn't mean a lot to me when it's against much lesser. If it was so easy to come over and win these types of races we would see it happen more often. He's not a Raven's Pass or an Arcangues coming over with proven G1 quality, granted he hasn't yet had the opportunity, and maybe he'll be an aberration, but I haven't seen anything whether it be visually or on paper that signals him to be a serious Derby contender.

[Thunder Gulch]

I can't calculate how much money I burned in the late 90's early 2000's trying to cover all the Euro/UAE horses in my exotics. One of these days, somebody will ship over and win, but they won't have my money backing them.