Ten young horses parade to the post for the Ireland Resident Dirt Futurity. They will be going one mile on the dirt course for a purse of $75,000. This looks to be an exciting race for our residents, as a battle up front seems an inevitable occurance in this one.<\/br><\/br>On the rail is crowblack’s Ride The Shoopuf(GER)<\/b> at 15\/1. This has got to be one of my favorite horse names ever. Whenever I see her, I want to leave the computer and dig out my FF X-2 disc. But, back to the horse. Samum(GER) has sired 5 babies in the sim, and 3 are winners. Four of the five belong to Morrighan, and two are running here today. This one won her debut on turf, and looked promising, but has actually run even better on dirt. She has only failed to cash a check once in her career, and has D. Nickesy on board today.<\/br><\/br>In post two is grimmie’s Forevermore<\/b> at 9\/2. If anyone doesn’t know who grimmie is, one need only know that this colt’s damsire is Kris S. and that will give it away. I had the fortune, or perhaps misfortune, to run up the track in this colt’s best race, an allowance in Japan where he ran a 90 speed figure but missed by less than a length. He regressed to his previous form in his next start, but it was a sloppy track, and he has been off the track for the two months since then. Mizzi Russell will surely bring out the best in him and show us what he is really made of.<\/br><\/br>In post three is sunnydale’s Strong Account<\/b> at 13\/1. A son of Strong Hope, he has only run twice, and his long odds are likely because of the poor trip he had in his debut. He rebounded nicely to give a strong account of himself last time out, and won easily with a 78 speed figure. D. Doyle is riding today, and another improvement is to be expected out of this handsomely-bred colt.<\/br><\/br>In post four is blaster4’s Hand To Mouth<\/b> at 8\/1. This young lass by Woodman also has only run twice, and improved nicely in winning her maiden race last time out with a 77 speed figure. Her dam was a stakeswinner at 3, and a very useful stakes runner through her 4yo season, so I would expect this filly to turn into a nice racemare herself. M. Fontain is in the irons.<\/br><\/br>The deserving favourite at 7\/2 is lbgong’s Gran Hope<\/b>. The second Strong Hope colt in the field, he flashed ability from his very first start, winning his debut in Florida with a 75, and following it up with an allowance win in N. Florida with an impressive 83. He ran fourth in a G3 at a mile in his next start, hit the board in an open stakes on a good track after that, but finished out of the money last time out despite running a career-best 87. With E C Doyle in the saddle today, he has a great chance to become a stakeswinner, but he will have company up front.<\/br><\/br>In post six at 6\/1 is buytapia5’s Wonderous Stories<\/b>. A son of Tale Of The Cat, he has only one race under his belt, but he ran second by only a length and was closing at the end. With Theatrical(IRE) as his damsire, it seems only right to not even bother with sprints, and he should show improvement today and looks like a very promising youngster.<\/br><\/br>In post seven at 14\/1 is breed4me’s I Call Your Name(IRE)<\/b>. It is a true testament to this resident’s dedication to Irish-breds to note that he has so many Irish babies that he had to put one in this race that is not dedicated to Irish-tagged horses. This one is by Grandera(IRE) and sprung to life last time out when switched over to dirt. His pedigree says he should like going a mile, so we will see if he improves yet again today.<\/br><\/br>In post eight at 22\/1 is broodmares’ Golden Ice<\/b>. She is a bit heavy on the Mr. Prospector breeding, and may not be so happy going a mile, but she has done it before and showed no real difference in her speed figures. She ran a nice race last time out, winning her maiden here in Ireland with a 75, but will need to get a perfect ride from Barnes to pull an upset here.<\/br><\/br>In post nine is the horse who should benefit most from the expected speed battle up front. Wahoo’s Idealist<\/b> is at 5\/1, and if A. Reed settles him right in behind the pace, he should be perfectly set to pounce when the two leaders tire in the stretch. The Aptitude colt has done just that in three of his four wins so far. His last was so easy that he led the entire race. He ran an 84 there, his first at 7f, and should have no problem with the extra furlong here.<\/br><\/br>Rounding out the field is coroner’s Josheba<\/b> at 9\/2. He comes from a special bloodline, as his half-brother was a graded winner at 2, and that half-brother’s daughter is also a graded winner at 2. “Rodney” is already stakesplaced in just two starts, missing by only 1\/4 length in his stakes debut with an 87. Z. Kentucky is likely to have him flying from the start, and a duel with Gran Hope is the expectation. <\/br><\/br>I hate to call this a three horse race, because if I do someone will surely spoil the show and run the race of their lifetime, but…it does look to me like we will see a tight finish between Gran Hope, Idealist, and Josheba. The only possible kink in that prediction is if E C Doyle takes Gran Hope off the pace, in which case Josheba may find himself loose on the lead looking like Mizzen Dizzie in the BB Mile. This is shaping up to be one of the most exciting matchups of the day, and I fully expect at least one or maybe two of these colts to go on to win a graded race next year. Good luck to all the runners, and may they all come home sound. GO IRELAND!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ireland’s Top Dirt Colts Battle It Out To The Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}