Vineyard Haven Sold...

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

Not exactly. What I was trying to say, and i apologize if it wasn't clear, is if you are already in Europe, it's silly to come to America to prep for a race that is in Europe. Just like I think it's ridiculous to take a horse that is here, and bring them to Dubai to prep for a race here. Make more sense?

That makes plenty of sense. But that's more a situation like the one in 2003 when Outta Here, an American-trained and raced horse, prepped for the Kentucky Derby by shipping to run in the UAE Derby.

What's not being mentioned is that the entire Godolphin band of horses, 3yos and older, are sent to Dubai. Winter in Dubai is the game plan for all their horses, not just 3yos targeting the Kentucky Derby. Its analagous (on a much larger scale) to old-time stables like Rokeby wintering their horses in Aiken, or WH Perry or Phipps stables sending horses to Santa Anita for the winter. They're there for several months.

In and of itself, I don't think this "regrouping" method is a bad idea. Where probably most of the problem lies, as opposed to the switch in locale--though obviously the long ship can easily knock out some horses--, is the switch in training/management (which is the plight of nearly all their 2yos). Not that the Suroor guy sucks, it just seems to be an untimely point in their careers to changing up the training program on developing horses. Its almost like the horses, being in new hands, have to start from scratch (this is what allegedly happened to Ruler's Court). It would be interesting to see how things would have played out if Eoin Harty and David Loder stayed on as head trainers for their strings while in Dubai.

Most of the failures of Godolphin to win the Kentucky Derby has been because they haven't shown up for the race, not because their horses have run like sh!t in it. In fact, the few horses they have started have given fairly decent accounts of themselves (Worldly Manner, China Visit, Express Tour). In addition, perhaps their two classiest candidates, Street Cry and Aljabr, were injured just days before the Derby.