Quote:
Originally Posted by five-eighths
Had to check out Hawkster for myself
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Hawkster passed on supplementing to the BC and ran in the Japan Cup instead, where he tasted defeat for the first time on turf.
In that race he surprisingly had to concede the early lead to Ibn Bey, who was a frontrunner in Europe but clearly had enough pace to handle American-type early speed. Hawkster collared him at the head of the stretch but both were quickly swallowed up despite fighting on to the wire.
Hawkster actually never won another race. When he returned home his connections decided to give him another go on the dirt. When he finally went back to the grass he ran into champion Steinlen and BC Turf hero Prized. Bad ankles cut his 4yo season and career short.
Coincidentally, since we're speaking about Mendelssohn, Japan Cup pace rival Ibn Bey went back to Europe and won a few Group 1s as a 6yo, then went to Belmont Park for a dirt experiment in the BC Classic. He chased a blazing pace set by Thirty Six Red among others, hung tough into the stretch and wrested the lead from the latter inside the 1/16th pole only to give way a stride or two later to the streaking Unbridled.
Ibn Bey, by the European great Mill Reef, had little dirt pedigree to speak of, but clearly his early speed was a huge asset in making the transition to dirt.
