Quality Road
 

Sharp work today at Palm Meadows (Harlem Rocker too). Pointing to Hal's Hope...Let's hope the gate issues are resolved so we can finally see who the best male horse is in America.

Did the gate issues keep him from winning the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup?

Or is the broken-legged Summer Bird's campaign wiped off the slate?

The gate issues are behind him. You will see him opening day (Sunday) at Gulfstream. Ironically, Jimmy Jerken's new hope for the Kentucky Derby (Afleet Express) will also be running a few days into the week, on Friday 1/8 I believe.

That was more forced than a jailhouse love connection.

And thats so funny I spit out my gatorade.

no. but missing 5 months of racing could not of helped. the horse lacks seasoning. i think he still has some things to prove. i'm glad hes back.

He acted up before the Travers, it was not horrible, but bad enough. He is clearly the best dirt horse in America and its a shame he never got a dry track to prove it against Summer Bird. This takes nothing away from Summer Bird he had a great year on dirt and I hope he comes back strong next year and recovers from this injury.

You could make a strong case for him up to 9f, I suppose, but that horse will never be dominant at 10f.

He's closer to Hard Spun then he is Curlin.

Rachel Alexandra is still in training

IMO, He's a little better than Hard Spun... and, ability wise, Summer Bird's probably a little closer to like a Ten Most Wanted than a Curlin.

Yep. Though I have my reservations that Quality Road will ever be able to repeat his Florida races or the Amsterdam.

When you have a 4yo with 7 starts that "lacks seasoning" you're probably dealing with a horse that can't hold together (physically and/or mentally).

He's more likely to emulate Discreet Cat at 4 than say a horse like Left Bank.

I don't know - Discreet Cat couldn't win an allowance race at age 4.

He was long, long, long gone.

That is really unfair. Ten Most Wanted was a very useful horse.

Likely to be a public workout if Pletcher doesn't send his other horses:

http://www.gulfstreampark.com/NR/rdo...lsHopeNoms.pdf

I'll take Mambo In Seattle if Kiaran McLaughlin is really the trainer.

I remember reading somewhere that McLaughlin took over his training but can't find the article.

That being said, QR is about 1000x better than Slowpoke in Seattle.

NT

Fair enough. However, with nagging question marks surrounding Quality Road, taking a long look at a one-time up-and-comer switching from a 10% barn to a 30% barn isn't a complete waste of time.

Of course, even when he was going good, I don't think people envisioned Mambo In Seattle as a miler-type.

FTFY!!

OMG. And I thought Rock Hard Ten was bad:zz:

Mambo might be ok.