Ed_from_Lisle wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Datalink, racing for Shug McGaughey. Keep an eye on this motherfucker.
Why, Joe? I'm fairly new to the game, as the bug bit me last year. Always open to learning stuff about it. I'm hooked. Gimme an angle here.
Button 48 time...
I went to Arlington Park (the bar inside, actually) to watch the Breeder's Cup in NOV, and when Zenyatta made her move, I was standing outside on the concourse with only one other dude, watching it on the big screen of AP's infield. It was pretty cool.
I saw this horse break its maiden in late January at Gulfstream. He did it at a mile and a sixteenth which put him well on the way to getting a buck and a quarter on the first Saturday in May. He has since won two more consecutive races. The last time he looked absolutely fantastic.
The thing that I find most interesting is that his trainer, Shug McGaughey, is a guy I would call a "condition milker". What I mean by that is, he will squeeze a bunch of money from a condition with a horse before winning and graduating to the next level. If he can race a horse three times in a NW2 and get two seconds before moving him up with a win, that's significant money when you're racing at Gulfstream or on the NYRA circuit where he does.
Because of that, I find the fact that he rolled him through his conditions by winning three straight to be noteworthy. To me, that signals that he is pointing this colt toward the Derby and isn't messing around with him. He has to have him ready. His next logical race would be the Florida Derby, although I could see him going straight to the Bluegrass.
I certainly wouldn't predict a Derby win right now, but I'll probably be betting Data Link in his next start and if he races well there, he's likely going to the Derby as one of the favorites.