3/26 (TP): Spiral, Bourbonette (G3's); Rushaway, Hansel, Queen

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by somerfrost

Many horses are excellent runners but not great sires. No horse has won the Derby with fewer than 16 points in his DP since 1950 (Middleground with 12). Animal Kingdom has 8 (DP: 2-0-6-0-0...Blushing Groom (B,C) appears in third generation, Lyphard (C) appears twice in 4th. European horses are included in CDR's so that's not a factor. Not saying this alone guarantees Animal Kingdom can't win but the history is certainly against him and that's why I consider his pedigree weak, especially as it translates into Derby success.

Firstly, it's dubious to say that the "foreign" element in Animal Kingdom's pedigree is not a factor. While a few Euros might be included, I doubt that as much focus is paid to the happenings on racetracks there than in the States, especially where it concerns assigning Chef-De-Race status.

Acatenango is probably the most successful German sire in history. Plenty of his offspring have performed at the elite international level as well.

Secondly, a lot of CDR assignments are made retrospectively and of dubious merit. It's easy to make all the Derby winners from 1950 onwards have a certain number of profile points (I like how the CD and DI are no longer the gold standard for Derby winners by the way) when you don't actually start assigning CDR status until 1980. A lot of CDRs probably achieved their "status" on the basis of those very same Derby winners. Therefore, horses sired by relatively young sires (such as Leroidesanimaux) are automatically biased against.

Recently, they made the hardly influential sire Lost Code, a CDR. He had a run there in the last few years as the broodmare sire of a few decent sprinters (the best being Fabulous Strike) and for some reason became a CDR. As though they were trying to force Lost Code into being an important sire, they also made his own sire, Codex, a CDR, too. How convenient. Codex sired just 3 crops and died over 25 years ago. Now all of a sudden his descendants are inheriting superior genes?

Based on this laughable maneuvering, I would predict that Animal Kingdom's profile will be soon be bolstered in the near future. Soon, streaking stallion Candy Ride will be a CDR and probably his own sire Candy Stripes along with him. Candy Stripes is also the sire of Leroidesanimaux. So Animal Kingdom has a "sneaky good" profile. Just like Real Quiet and Strike The Gold...