Was so slow he never raced. He’s being retrained for a second career.
I find it kind of ironic, considering how successful AP has been so far with his first crop. But happy to see the horse has a good home.
With that pedigree, I wonder if lack of speed was his only problem.
Regardless, as you know, even the best sires “only” produce 60-70% winners and 6-8% stakes winners.
Potentially not his only problem but happy his owners found him a second career before he had a significant soundness issue which would’ve prohibited him from being useful in a second career, It will be interesting and fun to see where he goes from here.
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If you saw his conformation pic you’d see that lack of speed isn’t his only problem…
He is still young and growing a bit rangy looking. With time to fill out and grow; I bet he looks like a different horse in 12 months
I’m pretty sure that confo pic is old.
I’m also thinking that isn’t an ideal angle for a confo pic.
it is a pretty bad conformation picture. I am willing to bet he is quite lovely in person. just a bad picture.
Cant wait to see him in a years’ time with some weight and additional growth on him.
If I read correctly, they are turning him out to let his joints close and will then start from scratch with him
does anyone know who he was training with before they opted to find him a second career?
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Some conformation faults don’t change as the horse grows.
You do realize that is him when he was a yearling, right?
Really? Where did you see that? I was under the impression that he is two like the rest of AP’s first crop…and therefore, that the picture was more recent.
I hope he improves with work and age, but I am going to say that I think he is ugly. Lookin’ ain’t doin’, but he is not attractive in the least to me. And you can’t ride his papers.
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Please educate me on this- what problems do you see in his breeding. In the dam side?
Thanks- I appreciate your wisdom on this.
I’m not really a fan of his confirmation either. Yes, young ones can be gangly, but I feel like there’s some disproportions throughout his conformation. But that’s just my eye.
And it’s said the dam turned out to be a nice hunter. If she’s was truly an amazing broodmare then she certainly wouldn’t be shipped off as a low level sport horse. She’d probably be rebred to his sire or another eligible bachelor.
She had a foaling injury and is likely not breedable
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Ah. Missed that part.
It looks like a yearling photo to me too, and during the no-neck stage. I’ve had enough yearlings to know that’s the time I usually want to hide them behind the barn…
I’d like to see a more recent pic to say anything negative about the horse except his front pasterns are longer than I’d like. And I had a sport-bred TB with those same pasterns that was very successful in the hunter ring years ago.
Good luck to him in his new career!
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My comment wasn’t a reference to his breeding being poor–actually the opposite. I haven’t even looked to see who his dam is. All I know about her is that she’s a mare worth a 100K stud fee and that her owner had enough clout to get her a February breeding at Ashford. Bearing that in mind, I’m sure she had a lot to commend her.
What I was trying to say (obviously not clearly enough) was with that superior breeding, and all the money that had been invested in producing that horse–very very few people would have given up on him this early unless there was something more serious than “slow” going on. AP’s oldest offspring are currently just two. And not all horses are ready to race (mentally and physically) at that young age. A horse who’s slow to mature would never even have had a chance to show how fast he is or isn’t until later than this. So the fact that someone put say, 200k, into producing this colt, and then decided when he was just two years old not to persevere with him makes me think that something else is probably going on.
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So all great points. After rereading I’m gathering a few things unless I’m confused. 1. The owners sent him over to these people, meaning they still own him. 2. There’s already a relationship with these trainers because the dam hasn’t been successful under their care. So I’m wondering if they noticed he wasn’t going to cut it and rather than get the colt embarrassed and be useless on the track, perhaps they are hoping that his lineage and this “good publicity stunt” might actually sell him for more as a sport horse than they’d get as a track horse. Are they losing money? Yes. But they probably realized they were anyway.
Yes, I am no conformation expert, but the front pasterns did not look great to me either. Maybe he is posed badly, however.
And absolutely good luck to him. I give credit to his people who seemed to want to cut their losses but who seemed to be trying to ensure a good future for him.
Got a little curious about the dam and found this article: https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/226126/building-sumaya-stables-to-success which mentions that FP is one of 6 APs that the mare owner bred and that FP himself was “a bit of a preemie.”
It’s really neither here nor there, but just thought it was interesting.
