Roger Stein on Beyer on Zenyatta

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

The $650,000 horse got hurt and never made it to the races. I do admit that it was a stupid comment though. There are so many things that can go wrong with a horse that you can never "guarantee" that one will turn out to be a stakes horse.

You mentioned a few horses that I was wrong about.

Let's look at all the horses I mentioned in the thread on promising 2 year olds and 3 year olds. We were talking about horses who had just broken their maidens. Here is a list of every horse I mentioned:

1. Uptowncharlybrown- He came back and won a stakes race.
2. Bear's Hard Ten- He came back and won a stakes race.
3. Sidney's Candy- He won the Santa Anita Derby
4. Bulldogger- He was totally mishandled but still won an allowance by 5 lengths and got a 103 Beyer.
5. Sister Dawn- She's won 3 races since then, two allowance races and a stakes race.
6. Kajiwara- Came back and ran 2nd beaten a length in 1:08 4/5.
7. Cowboy Gets Even- My worst pick. He came back and ran 2nd twice in a row in allowance races but never showed the ability of a good horse.
8. Trappe Shot- Won two allowance races, a stakes race and ran 2nd in the
Haskell.
There was only a single horse (Cowboy Gets Even) on that list whose ability I was probably wrong about.

I'm amused you included Sidney's Candy - as you only mentioned him after his stunningly impressive maiden win.

It would be like someone saying they "like" Uncle Mo after he wins his debut by a pole with a triple digit Beyer at Saratoga. Or saying they "like" Quality Road after he runs a triple digit Beyer in his debut at AQU. Or saying they "like" Curlin after he runs a triple digit Beyer in his debut at Gulfstream. Or saying they "like" Big Brown after he wins his debut by a pole on turf at Saratoga.

It's kind of annoying when someone has the potential to be a good poster around here ... but instead they'd rather pull a Baghdad Bob routine because a horse like they like lost.