Mark, why do you place so much stock in the sire's ability to get distance? The dam's side is equally important, and in my estimation, more important. I think you are making a mistake here, but who am I to try to talk you out of it.

I understand a little better what you mean about "good" horse now, but what you really mean is durable. I am currently investigating a theory I started after reading the article in bloodhorse about how only one of the winners who raced over the hard derby-day surface last year have come back to win a race.

I then thought of some comments I heard from an owner I met who said that Gulfstream Park is very hard on horses. That got me to thinking, how many horses who spent a winter in Gulfstream, had an effort down there, and either had poor showings and never really did anything again by derby time, or in the case of last year, were done right after the derby. Let's look at a recent list...

Monarchos
Invisible Ink (actually attempting a comeback)
Songandaprayer
ThunderBlitz
TalkIsMoney
Hals Hope (an expetion)
Wheelaway
Trippi (went back to sprinting and did OK)
HighYield
Cat Thief (an exception)
Vicar
Wondertross
Stephen Got Even
Adonis
Halory Hunter
Lils Lad

Anyone see where I'm going with this? Obviously, you can't draw a firm conclusion from this, but if I had a star 3 year-old preping for the derby, i would be avoiding GP like the plague.