Surprised

I have been surprised by how fast many of the partnerships have dropped horses into maiden claimers. I know the old expression “you have to run them where they can win”, but I had expected more patience.

I guess that is the problem with horses you expect to be precocious, is that if they cant’t run early there is no reason to wait for them.

Today at Gulfstream Eclipse had a nice Speightstown colt (paid $150,000 at KE September 2019) out of a Mizzen Mast mare that got one try on turf at Calder before being dropped to $25,000 dirt sprint. He went to the lead, but finished a bad third. If I owned 5% for say about $15,000 I would not be a happy camper.

There was a lot of pedigree here. He was by a mare that won two graded races, and produced a $300,000. If I did not hate Speightstown, I might have liked this horse last year. We will see in 30 minutes if he got claimed, but I am writing this before I know for sure.

I do not mean to pick on Eclipse, I have seen West Point and Donegal do the same thing. In fact Dare to Dream did the same with Blonde on Tap. I guess I should try to keep better track, and I will with this year’s crop.

This observation makes it less likely that I get excited about any big partnership horse that is supposed to by precocious (which is 80% of them).