I'll Have Another

What are the chances that any horse trained by Doug O'Neill will make it to the Derby or last the TC? Probably small. You know this because you've closely followed the training and conduct of Doug O'Neill or you are a very dedicated reader of this blog.

We're quite ok with another TC contestant broodmare sire by Arch even if this gives a little bit of a sick feeling to the stomach. Around here we're well aware of the power and speed of these dudes, the big stride, etc, and the absolute wild card that I'd guess that Arch horses are quite a bit more difficult to injure than most TBs by the likes of the Doug O'Neills of the world. My own Rollin' Rodney has certainly the strongest set of legs I had on any of my horses and that would be around 20 in number. Who was that one last year with the broodmare sire by Arch? Answer at bottom of page.

On the subject of O'Neill my take is that trainers, coaches, managers rarely change their stripes but of course they can, and on rare occasions do. What do you think prompted O'Neill to the work schedule below:

http://www1.drf.com/workoutsForHorseAction.do?rNo=09012692

We approve of the distances of course, and is it any surprise that the horse with the longest breezes ran down the other one in the stretch? Here's the work tab of Creative Cause:

http://www1.drf.com/workoutsForHorseAction.do?rNo=09013643

Nothing particularly remarkable or particularly bad. The horse also raced twice before Sat. And with O'neil's work tab notice the approx. 9 day spacing. You can say one workout beat the other. There are other variables of course. Keep an eye on these two as likely one of them should be near the front on Derby day. Last year's Arch Broodmare sire: Uncle Mo.