While I don’t have the history available to me, I would think that this is the first time the same stable empire has had both 2yo male Eclipse winners in its ranks; but that isn’t even the whole story.<\/p>\n
The derbyking<\/em> enterprise started RACING CALENDAR<\/strong>‘s year off with an impressive win last week; now groupmate BIT OF A BUZZ<\/strong> tries the dirt for the first time, possibly in hopes of joining that one on Derby Watch lists.<\/p>\n The race boasts a $150,000 purse and will be contested at a flat mile on Dubai’s dirt racing surface.<\/p>\n In addition to the surface switch, there will be a solid field of 3yo colts for BIT OF A BUZZ<\/strong> to deal with. Let’s take a look-see:<\/p>\n HARDROSSE<\/strong> (4\/1) Drosselmeyer colt trained by badlamb<\/em> comes in off just five career starts. He ran a solid 5th last time out in the Grade 3 Giant Slayer Classic and needs to find a bit more “stick” to hold on for a podium spot here.<\/p>\n KING OF THE HEALS<\/strong> (10\/1) This colt by lightly-used 2nd-year Florida sire Stratford Hill has been campaigned on both surfaces in Europe with moderate success, but his 3yo debut last time out convinced chasedar2<\/em> to try the big-time here. This Florida-bred Stratford Hill colt is on the improve, but this is a big step up.<\/p>\n BIT OF A BUZZ<\/strong> (3\/1) Had a stellar 2013 on the turf, leading to a divisional Eclipse Award; but now derbyking<\/em> takes a shot at adding another spring classics contender, in the ol’ Todd Pletcher\/D. Wayne Lucas mold. For that to happen, this With Distinction colt will need to show he can handle the dirt in his face and be able to dig into the sandy Dubai dirt surface. This guy has run a lot of tough races somewhat close together but won a fair bunch of ’em, including the Grade 1 Futurity and the Breeders’ Bowl Juvenile Turf. His last was a little below par; could be a sign of weariness, or maybe it was “just one of those days”.<\/p>\n AWESOME SKIDMORE<\/strong> (6\/1) This Awesome Again colt has been a terror in allowance races, but he fell far short in his two stakes tries. The jrogue<\/em> trainee will need a huge effort to make a dent in this bunch.<\/p>\n FOX OF QUEENSLAND<\/strong> (7\/1) With 14 starts under his belt, this gwolfstc<\/em> trainee leads this field in experience by quite a bit. However, the Foxwedge colt has yet to have much success at this level and needs to have his best day ever to cash in this bunch.<\/p>\n BROOKINGS<\/strong> (22\/1) This Empire Maker colt has just three races under his belt, all local-bred allowances. The two dirt starts were pretty solid, encouraging cadet3<\/em> to take a moon shot here. Would need a big leap forward to cash in this spot, but certainly not impossible.<\/p>\n FROSTED VISION TED<\/strong> (9\/1) This Frost Giant colt comes off two solid stakes sprint efforts and trainer horsemen62<\/em> tries the dirt in hopes his runner can improve on his one route try, an 8th in the Breeders’ Bowl Juvenile Turf. His bloodlines suggest he should be able to do so, but he’ll have to prove that on the track.<\/p>\n HYPERBOREA<\/strong> (18\/1) has dominant wins in his last two, both local-bred allowances at 7 furlongs. This will be a stern test for the Dehere colt whose bloodlines suggest a sprinter tendancy. “Ya never know ’til ya try”, says trainer steelcard3<\/em>.<\/p>\n CLOSEMYWAYPASS<\/strong> (14\/1) has already run in a race longer than the Bluegrass Derby, the Dyna Form Dirt Challenge. The graywolf4<\/em> trainee closed well to be 4th in that effort; now the Closing Argument colt looks to find the winner’s circle to get the graded-stakes success you need to get onto the Triple Crown Trail.<\/p>\n MOUNTNOIR<\/strong> (3\/1) Coming off two impressive graded-stakes performances, the co-favored fernando<\/em> trainee is the one to beat, especially if BIT OF A BUZZ<\/strong> proves to dislike dirt racing. However, his record, racing style, and possibly his bloodlines indicate that route racing at a high level might prove to be just beyond his reach.<\/p>\n I’m going to go with MOUNTNOIR<\/strong> to get the win here, though he might be compromised by the pace scenario…<\/p>\n I think BIT OF A BUZZ<\/strong> has enough dirt influence in his pedigree; but weariness might be setting in after an arduos 2013 campaign…<\/p>\n I’ll go with FROSTED VISION TED<\/strong> to grab the show spot.<\/p>\n Good luck all!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While I don’t have the history available to me, I would think that this is the first time the same<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-19306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19306","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\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19306"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19343,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19306\/revisions\/19343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}