Just saw a picture of this horse and he is a stunner. Does he have any chance in the Derby?
Trading at 12/1 - 16/1 at the moment. Which in a 20 horse field suggest a decent chance. Pedigree suggests he’ll get the distance and appears to be a horse that is improving. Very gutsy run last out in the AK Derby. Well worth a wager at those odds.
Speaking of sons of Tapit 
Creator beat the favorite, Cupid, also a son of Tapit. And Mohaymen (Tapit) was the favorite in the Fla Derby. Sadly he faded and finished 4th.
What I cannot understand, though, is how Mohaymen went from 1st position to off the top 10 entirely on the Derby favorites list, based on that one race. Until then he had been undefeated, but suddenly he was a pariah.
Does anyone have any insight on Mohaymen? His connections said he came out of the Fla Derby just fine.
His trainer said after the FL Derby loss that MOHAYMEN did not like the sloppy track. It looked to me as though his jockey push him a little early into his stretch run. Actually a couple of TV commentators alluded to that in their post race commentary. I am up in the clouds trying to make sense of it all. I crashed and burned last year so I am anxious to get my bet right this year. I was really impressed with Exxagerator and Collected. It is hard to get into the minds of the handicappers anyway you look at it. At around 15 to 1, Creator would be a good bet. I don’t rule Mohaymen out because of the FL Derby. Good colts like Nyquist on the lead on a wet track have the advantage anyway you look at it.
And Cupid had a trapped epiglotis for which he will be having surgery to address and therefor will be missing the Derby.
I would consider his last race results a bit of a fluke based on his medical condition…
Creator is my nonsensical pedigree pick. Tapit is all well and good, but the bottom side is what gets me. That’s some darn nice international blood capped off with some highly influential broodmare sires who don’t show up in pedigrees nearly as much as they should. Verbatim, Northfields, Damascus… to have all three of them on the page is crazy. I’d be really surprised if Creator is Morena’s only stakes winner…
Mohaymen had his first work at Churchill Downs yesterday and it was an awesome work. His work was the fastest one at that distance and the exercise rider said he loved the track. There was an article about it on bloodhorse.com.
Sounds like he didn’t like the track in the Florida Derby so I’m willing to throw that race out.
http://www.pedigreequery.com/creator9
Tex: It is a female line that you look over and at first nothing jumps out at you and then the light bulb goes on as you read on. Checked and could not find a blue hen to his conduit mare but that is the nature for the modern 21st century TB. Creator has been on the board 7 of 8 starts. I wasn’t impressed with his Arkansas Derby but someone on another thread pointed out the heavy going he survived.
[QUOTE=Shammy Davis;8630545]
Tex: It is a female line that you look over and at first nothing jumps out at you and then the light bulb goes on as you read on. Checked and could not find a blue hen to his conduit mare but that is the nature for the modern 21st century TB. Creator has been on the board 7 of 8 starts. I wasn’t impressed with his Arkansas Derby but someone on another thread pointed out the heavy going he survived.[/QUOTE]
Here’s Morena:
http://mtbrilliant.com/system/assets/262/Morena.pdf
Morena was a multiple graded stakes winner and Peruvian champion out of a Peruvian broodmare of the year. Her second dam was a multiple blacktype producer in Peru with yet another Peruvian champion underneath her. While the family may obscure the farther you trace back, in recent generations, they have formed a South American dynasty.
Verbatim, Damascus, and Northfields are above average broodmare sires. Well above average. It is no surprise to see their presence in mares who have been producing better and better in recent generations. The influx of Aviance and Numbered Account blood alone is something to drool over. And while Verbatim didn’t get a lot of “big” horses, he put a toughness and fortitude in his get that has been unparalleled by any other sire of his era.
Just as a historical aside, as I recall reading, Peru and Chile were the first South American countries to import North American bloodlines in the 18th century. It is nice we can retrieve and benefit from some of that exported influence. A solid branch of Prince John through Princequillo is also evident in Creator’s pedigree.
I thought I would add my thoughts here since OP is my home track and I follow it pretty carefully. I left Cupid off my ticket the day of the AR Derby because of how he was acting in the saddling paddocks (too anxious) in favor of Creator.
Here is why. If you look at the way Creator has been campaigned, it seemed to me that he was Asmussen’s “well intended” horse for the Ark Derby. just a short break in January — and 2 races almost back to back ---- I think Creator was meant to peak for this race. Compare to Gunrunner, who received a nice long winter layoff before the prep season began, and while Creator was doing his AR Derby, Gunrunner was sent early to Churchill to work…bullets.
Just my take on things.
If Asmussen ever had a chance to win the KY Derby this might be his year. Gunrunner runs midpack/tracker horse, seems like he would encounter less trouble than a from the clouds closer in a field of 20. I am not planning on the race falling apart, like the AR Derby did and which benefitted Creator.
