Borrego's future

[JPinMaryland]

Is he ready for stud yet? Were they waiting for him to win the JCGC? While he has not overly impressed me, he certainly has shown consistency and some brilliance. I guess why I really like him is that he seems to be a classic runner up, if they could take his legs and find a different head for him maybe they'd have some thing.

Hell they put Tapit to stud after what...5 races?

[Tee]

Borrego is still in training & has two workouts on his tab since the Breeders Cup Classic.

From Drf
By BRAD FREE

Borrego eyes February return

Borrego will carry lofty expectations into the 2006 season. Trainer Beau Greely has penciled a February return for Borrego, who rose to prominence late this year with Grade 1 wins in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar and Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, followed by a 10th-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

"He might have bounced a little bit in the Breeders' Cup," Greely said Tuesday. "I can't really come up with any excuse other than he didn't fire. He did run two hard races. We had a good run."

Borrego will walk and jog the next few weeks, then crank up for winter. Speculating on the Borrego's 2006 campaign, Greely said Borrego would have "five or six races," including two starts at Santa Anita - possibly the San Antonio Handicap in February, followed by the Santa Anita Handicap in March.

The main goal, of course, will be the one that got away. "Ideally, I'd like to keep him in America and point for the [Breeders' Cup] Classic," Greely said. "We have to go back and try to get it."

[JPinMaryland]

Thanks for that info, I guess I dont understand why he is still out there running. I checked the pedigree site to make sure he wasnt gelded but no....I would think he would be excellent stud prospect. Are there too many Sadler's wells progeny out there that they are not interested that much? He has Strike the Gold on the female side, I thought he hiad some reputation there but..

[OTM Al]

My thinking on it would be that with a horse like Tapit, perhaps they could argue the unknown and unrealised potential that he had (though I certainly wouldn't buy it). Borrego however has pretty much shown what he was made of before, but now they are hoping that he has finally figured it out. If he can hit a couple more G1s, which is very possible, he will increase his marketability whereas he will never be less valuable than the so-so level he was at before. Very much worth the shot in my opinion.

On a related note, I simply will never understand paying large amounts of a stud fee to injury riddled sires that quit early on in their 3yo year. I don't care what the breeding was because it seems to me that you are just as likely to pass on the traits that caused the injury as you are any great lineage potential. I know there are exceptions there, the recently deceased Danzig comes quickly to mind, but it seems to me that this sort of breeding is the major contributor to the weakening of the breed. If I had mares to breed, (and of course intended to race the offspring rather than just unload them for some sucker down the line) I would have to think long and hard about sending them to any horse that didn't show success through his 4yo season at the least.

[TravisVOX]

You're preaching to the choir OTM AL. I agree, unfortunately, the almighty dollar is driving these fools. They're ruining the breed.

[JPinMaryland]

it's interesting discussion and hard to say how exactly unsoundness has come into the breed. For me it's something of a chicken/egg problem. If you look at the sire lines up until the early 70s there were still a lot of diverse lines still running, like the Negromonte line, some of the english lines, that line that had Nahsua, etc. Then all of a sudden it's Raise a Native; Nasrullah and Northern Dancer lines that are winning all the TC races.

ANd it's at that pt. that I guess all the money starts going into those races and all the stud fees start jumping on those with precocious speed. So who to blame? The money or the lines themselves? Its possible that the Prince Rose line or the Broad Brush lines could have equally emerged, with equal amounts of stud fees being dumped on them and the same problem might happen.

Then again breakdowns seem to have been a part of the sport since the early days. But they do seem to run less and retire earlier these days.

[OTM Al]

The unsoundness I'm talking about isn't inherant to a particular line per se. The top horses of those lines should continue them. Its just breeding any member of those line because they are of those line that causes the problems. Any line is going to have its weak spots which are getting coverd up by very short careers and lots of drugs. That is the breeding in of defects that I mean.

[kenwoodallpromos]

"He might have bounced a little bit in the Breeders' Cup," Greely said Tuesday. "I can't really come up with any excuse other than he didn't fire. He did run two hard races." :sleeping:
No excuse other than he was overworked.
All horses are on notice- Win the #*$%^v BC race or no nookie! :lol:

[Wiley]

No excuse other than he was overworked.

I guess it has come to this: the horse ran only 7 races prior to the BC classic and only 8 times as a three year old but this must now be considered a hard campaign by modern standards? Granted he did have two over the top runs in the Pacific Classic and the JCGC but I seriously doubt at the beginning of the year Greely expected this guy to be a strong BC contender so he did not set his training goals to win that race. His hand was forced to go in the BC race with the two late big wins.

[kenwoodallpromos]

I understand but he is over 3 and was in big races as a 3 yr old. Seems as a trainer you have to expect the (positive) unexpected.

[JPinMaryland]

it's interesting. I'm not sure I really buy into the theory that if he wins one or two more G1s his stud fees will go up a lot...Hmmm. If he wins one more Gr I I cant see how that changes anything. Now if he wins two more, then okay yeah, I guess...

But if this was really a good strategy for stud wouldnt everybody be doing it? WOuldnt we see more Tapit's and [insert name of favorite 3 yr. old here] out there campaigning at four? Hell it's just the opposite effect we see.

Could it be that the market for El Prado/Sadler's Wells progeny is just not real hot at the moment? I have no idea. just tossing out ideas. But Borrego's management is pretty interesting. Nice looking chesnut too.

Hmm, come to think of it, is it time for another "Where are they now thread?"