A DIFFERENT VIEW
by John Mucciolo
Countless opinions have been made by turf writers across the country on how
foolish the mighty Godolphin stable has been in its, thus far, futile attempt
at taking America’s most popular race, the Kentucky Derby (G1). Although the
sentiment shared seems to be universal across the Thoroughbred industry on how
bad the planning is of this empire’s strategy toward the Derby, I thought it
might be fitting to take the less traveled road and applaud Godolphin for its
perseverance and unique plan for taking down its first Run for the Roses. And
believe me, Godolphin will get at least one.
I know, I know, it has been documented that you must have started at two, had
three preps in your three-year-old-year, have raced within four weeks of the
Derby, have no more than 25 letters in your name, work out before 7:13 a.m. at
Churchill Downs on a Tuesday, have owners with a middle name starting with
a consonant, etc. It’s America’s most scrutinized race and it gets old. But for
years, turf writers and handicappers hung their hat on the old Dosage Index
theory, and we see where that has gotten us as of late. And I laugh at the
notion that the horse should be bred in Kentucky or Florida, because we’ve seen
in the past two years that the impact of that is quite trivial.
So why not
dispel the other trends that have been made up to this point, especially when
we’re talking about Godolphin, which we’ll get to in a moment. Do we not think
that it will be soon that an unraced two-year-old will progress and win a Derby,
or that a sophomore with just one or two, or no, preps will capture the
demanding 10 furlongs beneath the Twin Spires? Foolish you say? Possibly as
foolish as an oft-rank New York-bred taking home the Derby going away. Or a
horse who began his career beating up inferior foes in Philadelphia coming
within a length of the much coveted Triple Crown. Pedigree experts are still
scratching their respective heads following those two events.
The racing pundits who continually bash Godolphin’s plan to earn a Derby win
are the same people who cover racing and continually produce stories on Godolphin’s
graded and group tallies across the continent, whether it be a Breeders’ Cup
event, a Guineas race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1), etc. In fact, the
outfit has captured just about every prestigious race worldwide (an astounding
115 Group 1 races across 11 countries in just 10 years), yet our skeptics are
stuck in the little bubble known as American racing and deem Godolphin winning
a Derby as impossible. Wake up folks, quality horse racing occurs on other sides
of the oceans as well and Godolphin has conquered much of it. I know it
intimidates you, but if the operation makes an all out effort to be king of the U.S.
circuit, they’d probably do so as well.
BLUES AND ROYALS (Honour and Glory) and PAROLE
BOARD (Dynaformer) are now nominated to the Triple Crown, and although one
of these may not be the one to win the Derby for the Maktoum family, that is yet to be determined. To
state that this
organization of racing excellence will never win the race with its own
strategy is as close minded and
ignorant an opinion as I’ve ever heard. Any true fan of the racing industry should not only understand that this
occurrence is inevitable, they should also celebrate a Godolphin win,
as the Maktoums support Thoroughbred racing as much as anyone in the world.
The influence of Godolphin’s big spending is felt everywhere in the industry,
from the commissions that Keeneland and other sales companies have made over the
years to the breeders who’ve made a big splash selling a horse for seven
figures, thus changing their lives forever. To drill home the point, ask the
Fasig-Tipton sales company, who surely love seeing the Middle Eastern entourage
attending their two-year-old sales. Last year, they temporarily broke the world
record for a son of Stephen Got Even at an in-training event.
I’m personally rooting for the horses in those royal blue silks this year,
and will continue to do so year after year until they succeed, because they
deserve a win for their hard work, professionalism and genuine love for the
sport. They can be considered nothing but assets to the greatest sport on the
planet, horse racing. And you’d have to believe that if the Red Sox could win a
World Series, Godolphin could win the big race on the first Saturday in May.
To steal a line from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, “We must dream
big….only then can we achieve big.”
Here’s to hoping that Godolphin achieves something really big in May.