Vineyard Haven Sold...

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Handicappy

Forget just the 2 year olds that you know about, although I am sure there are many you don't know about. There have seldom been horses that they have gotten that have moved forward after going to them. Discreet Cat came back to the US an absolute mess and not due to injuries. He was light and they didn't even work him for about 2 months once he came back. Henny Hughes was the same. No injuries mind you. They just didn't know what to do with them. Please, at least do some research on the trainer if you are going to be an avowed fan.

Henny Hughes returned and won a gr three race in NJ before winning the gr one King's Bishop and the gr one Vosburgh over older horses. Discreet Cat came back and won the gr two Jerome then beat older in the gr one Cigar Mile, nearly setting a track and world record in the process. Please, at least present better examples of failures if you are going to tell me where my opinion is wrong.

Henny Hughes never had a shot in hell to win the Derby. What he did have a chance to be was the best 3yo sprinter in the country, if not the best sprinter period and it's arguable that he still turned out to be both. Discreet Cat probably wasn't getting 10f on his best days either so to classify them both as failures because they didn't come back here and win the Derby is a bit silly to me.

Maybe the analogy to Pletcher or Frankel is silly. But the point is that even doing things the conventional way is not a guarantee to success. I don't think it's fair to say that the way the Dubai people do it is the reason why their horses haven't won when it's plenty of other people that don't do it their way and they haven't won either.