Spanish Harlem

[RobinFromIreland]

Sometimes I can’t understand why Coolmore run their horses where they run their horses.

Everyone knows that Danehill has an atrocious record on dirt. When they sent Dylan Thomas over for the JCGC in the US last year, I thought they were crackers (DT trailed his 3 opponents throughout the race and finished 30+L behind the hard-held winner, Bernadini).

This year, perhaps for the first time ever, a high-class Danehill horse has displayed a marked preference for AW over turf. He has won on all 4 AW tracks including the biggest AW race of the season. He is bred in the purple being out of a 1000 Guineas winner. He is also a currently active stallion. He, of course, is Gentleman’s Deal. And he got hockeyed in the Lincoln (turf) where, versus his dirt rating, he was "thrown in".

Coolmore own his full brother Spanish Harlem. On his debut, he finished 5L 4th on soft ground to current strong Derby fancies Soldier of Fortune and Mores Wells. In his next race, he beat current strong Derby fancy Archipenko, this time on heavy.

On his 3yo debut he finished a well-beaten 10th behind subsequent French 2000 Guineas runner-up Creachadoir over 7f on Good ground. It looks like he’s going to run in the Irish 2000 Guineas this weekend, where he may be a 50/1+ chance.

Why isn’t this colt on the next plane to the US or at least in the general direction of a dirt/AW track? Think of the potential stallion value…

(Edited by RobinFromIreland at 12:02 am on May 23, 2007)

[Grimes]

I’ve had a small bet on him at 125s with Betfair. With that breeding… It’s not guaranteed he won’t act on turf, however probable.

… that didn’t last long!

(Edited by Grimes at 10:33 pm on May 24, 2007)

[andyod]

I watched the race in question many times.Archipenko started at 25 ‘s and the winner was the fav.Spanish Harlem.<br>The claiming jockey did everything possible to avoid passing SH in the final strides. So Heffernan won on SH but Archipenko was the surprise horse of the race!

[Author]

Posts