Disappointing

It has been my goal to stay positive in writing this blog, but I have to call things as I see them.

It has been disappointing to watch the lack of patience shown by the major partnership groups. All of them have been quite willing to drop their expensive yearling purchases into claiming races very quickly. I would have expected more patience. I guess one test will be how successful these horses are after they are claimed. I will eventually have to go back and track each of these horses, but for now I am just expressing disappointment.

For example, on Friday, June 25th, the guys at Ten Strike dropped their highly touted $500,000 Into Mischief colt, Amazing Rocket, into a $50,000 maiden claimer at Churchill, and got him claimed. He finished a miserable 9th with the line “through after half”. This horse had been one the main horses in the infamous Cox/Crow Ten Strike podcast that laughed at horses bred with stamina.

Obviously Marshall Graham at Ten Strike is an experienced claiming owner, and knows exactly what he is doing. Brad Cox is famous for being “honest” with owners about expensive horses. Maybe the quick drop is good horsemanship. The buyer was trainer Chris Hartman for an experienced claiming group led by Joey Keith Davis. Let’s watch and see what happens.

Cox/Donegal also had a quick hook for their nice $95,000 son of Honor Code, losing Code Duello for a $50,000 tag at Fairgrounds to Richard Baltas and owner Keith Johnston.

And then just to add insult to injury, I noticed my favorite Centennial Farm had a $550,000 son of Ghostzapper in a $12,500 maiden claimer at Gulfstream. Not only did Ethos not win, he did not even get claimed. He has lifetime earnings of just $35,000. At least Centennial did give him 7 tries before dropping him to a claimer. This was a beautifully bred horse, but Centennial did get him at the Fasig-Tipton training sale rather than a yearling sale.

In all honesty, these quick drops make it less likely that I will invest in some of these partnerships. That is why I am writing this blog, to document how these partnerships actually conduct their business.