Dominican
 

I guess he deserves his own thread now.
My gut instinct is to dismiss this horse as a poly specialist because he is now 3 for 3 on the poly and 0 for 4 on the dirt.
Does anyone see it differently than that?
Is there ANY chance he is a factor in three weeks?

He's got a really strange stride. I doubt I'll use him in the Derby...

I think he's a toss, never been better than 3rd on the dirt. His form wasn't terrible on dirt but not good enough to run better than 7th or 8th in the Derby.

Looks to me that any horse in the starting gate at CD could be a factor this year...Dominican certainly now deserves a shot. Don't know what you can say about a grade one race that goes 26 for the first quarter....this was a mess. Street Sense ran well but had a clear shot and didn't impress...I simply don't know!

I just believe that closing into those absolutely ridiculous fractions right past 2 of the colts supposedly at the top of the class is something that warrants serious consideration for the derby. No matter what surface, his peformance today puts him into the thick of it in my opinion. I also had him pretty big today so I might be a little biased this soon after the race.

I think Dominican wins the triple crown.

*jumps*

May be able to get up for a 3rd or 4th in the Derby but like said horse has a terrible looking stride and a few closers going in the Derby. If CQ is ok and no problems he is a much better bet as a closer

Hard to justify him either way at this point. Very strange race that needs to be replayed a few times before forming any strong opinions on the runners.

His stride isn't terrible... just different. Not really turfy looking with high knee action, but he strides out kind of flat kneed. I don't know what to make of it really. :confused:

I think all you can really do is go back and watch his 2yo races and then watch his 3yo races and see how much you think he improved on the poly and try and add that on to his dirt figures to see how that fits. Not an easy task.

It looks like he keeps his legs really straight? There was one clip in his workouts this morning on TVG that looked nice and smooth and the rest of the time when I watch him run it's puzzling to me too.

Same way I saw it. I guess it doesn't really matter as long as the horse is comfortable (he appeared that way today. :) )

Stride looks like something is wrong with front left leg but does not seem to bother him. I like the horse just not near level of others.


Just lets not talking about how better he is than Street Sense-- if there was not jam SS would have won the race

I totally suck handicapping the poly, so it will take even more work for me.:o

I will watch this race quite few times tonight though, before really forming an opinion. I have been high on Great Hunter for quite a while now...anxious to see how he comes out of this race.

Well, he is 2-2 since being gelded.

He is a total toss in the Derby.

Who isn't?

That isn't really horse racing......

Can you imagine if they run the Breeders Cup over that joke of a surface?

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers in the Commonwealth all exited one-mile turf races in there last start.

Than you have the Blue Grass....where a horse gets off with an uncontested lead through 26 and 51 fractions, and can't run a straight line through the stretch....while a deep closer rallies past two serious Derby horses to win.

How exactly did the 4th place finisher not get DQ'ed....once Prado started hitting him left handed, he came out SEVERAL paths, and clearly fouled Great Hunter. That was pretty amusing.....it made the whole race look even more absurd than it was in the first place.

Cory was on Great Hunter and he said after the race that "it was no big deal", Great Hunter appeared finished anyway but it sure looked bad on TV.

One thing I like about him is that he seems to have push-button speed, and I disagree that he's just a polytrack horse. He ran a big third in the KJC at Churchill last fall.

Frankly I don't see where Street Sense had any excuse (aside from the slow pace obviously).