Listen in to Little Mike, King Kreesa's races tonight!

[PatCummings]

Current odds for HK Cup with $200k in the pools

Cirrus Des Aigles is 11-1
Little Mike is 31-1
Side Glance is 32-1
Grandeur is 35-1
Military Attack is 9-5
Akeed Mofeed is 2-1

[PatCummings]

Current odds for Hong Kong Vase, with a bunch of internationals...

Filly never first past post, Ebiyza, is 14-1...Dunaden is 15-1 (won this race in 2011).

The Fugue is 2-1

[pmayjr]

listening to the audio (because that's how I party on a Sat night... when it's below zero in Minnesota) and the quality is clean. The analysts seem to be very knowledgeable, but it's kinda fun listening to the international terminology and lingo being slightly different than ours.

How have I never heard of Zac Purton before?

[Calzone Lord]

Little Mike managed to beat 3 horses home. King Kresa managed to beat two horses home.

Even though none of them finished better than 9th place, it was most delightful to read of the European horses struggling...and race after race going to Asia based horses.

Our grass horses and grass racing remains 3rd rate at best. This fact is proven every single year in Dubai...where grass horses from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, all ship and win...while our horses are starting to flirt with going a combined 0-for-100.

We did absolutely dominate on dirt, in Dubai.

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Our grass horses and grass racing remains 3rd rate at best. This fact is proven every single year in Dubai...where grass horses from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, all ship and win...while our horses are starting to flirt with going a combined 0-for-100.

We did absolutely dominate on dirt, in Dubai.

So long as dirt racing is the primary focus of racing in this country, our top horses race on dirt. Our top grass males are typically imports or American-bred horses that didn't make it on dirt. Not that it is a predictor of success on turf, but the following are top class dirt runners who were turf bred and have become leading "grass sires": Lemon Drop Kid, Smart Strike, Ghostzapper, Rock Hard Ten, Medaglia d'Oro, Arch, More Than Ready and Hard Spun.

Even a Hall of Famer like Lure was not tried on turf until short-priced defeats in the Lexington and Riva Ridge in the spring of his 3YO season. This past year, it would have been interesting with his pedigree to have seen Verrazano (by More Than Ready from a good Alexander female family) tried on turf; I would not be surprised to see him become a useful turf sire down the road.

[PatCummings]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

Little Mike managed to beat 3 horses home. King Kresa managed to beat two horses home.

Even though none of them finished better than 9th place, it was most delightful to read of the European horses struggling...and race after race going to Asia based horses.

Our grass horses and grass racing remains 3rd rate at best. This fact is proven every single year in Dubai...where grass horses from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, all ship and win...while our horses are starting to flirt with going a combined 0-for-100.

We did absolutely dominate on dirt, in Dubai.

Little Mike was only beaten 3 3/4L...King Kreesa was beaten over 11. Big difference, IMO.

[PatCummings]

Lord Kanaloa's performance in the Sprint was probably the most dominating performance I've ever seen in a top-flight grass sprint. You just don't win those in mixed company by five lengths. Black Caviar's largest margin in a G1 (albeit doing it easy), was 4L.

[iamthelurker]

Originally Posted by PatCummings

Lord Kanaloa's performance in the Sprint was probably the most dominating performance I've ever seen in a top-flight grass sprint. You just don't win those in mixed company by five lengths. Black Caviar's largest margin in a G1 (albeit doing it easy), was 4L.

Despite his rider bouncing off the saddle like a bug boy as well.

[cmorioles]

Originally Posted by PatCummings

Little Mike was only beaten 3 3/4L...King Kreesa was beaten over 11. Big difference, IMO.

Kind of depends on how the races were run. Hopefully I can find some replays today.

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by PatCummings

Little Mike was only beaten 3 3/4L...King Kreesa was beaten over 11. Big difference, IMO.

I think that shows even being beaten only 4 lengths you can still be thoroughly outclassed in turf racing.