Country Star

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Why wouldn't it be enough if she were just a turf and poly star? The game is changing.

It's interesting that the other in the money horses out of her initial race have come back to perform very, very well on the dirt. (Of course, they had worse trips than she did.)

Does something in her stride/racing style indicate that she won't be able to handle the dirt? If anything, there's been steady improvement in her form/footwork from race to race.

I know this was not for me but I wanted to give my answer to that anyway. I've always had a feeling that when people start their horses out on grass, it's often a sign that they haven't been too happy with what they've seen on dirt. Maybe that's silly but that's just something that's always been a part of my thinking. In America, dirt racing has always been king and while there have certainly been some great grass horses here, it often seems that quite a few of them go that route only after they've not lived up to expectations on the dirt.

As for what you say about the game changing, that's certainly correct. Because all of the racing in California will be done on synthetic tracks, a horse can have a pretty solid career and pick up some pretty big wins and never race on real dirt in his/her life. The fact that it will be done on fake dirt will always leave some question but at the same time, if the horse is better than all of the competition, that's all that matters. But as I said, there will be questions. Sort of like the situation with Lava Man. No question that he was a star and he dominated California racing like few others have. But we know how his story went when he had to leave his comfort zone. It used to be that we would only have to debate turf horses versus dirt horses in trying to decide who's the best. Now we will have something else thrown into the mix. This year, Ginger Punch is the top dirt mare, Lahudood is the top grass mare and Nashoba's Key is the top synthetic mare. Who is the best? Who knows?