The Derby

Eagle Mountain strikes me as a horse without a distance. He stayed 12f but didn't improve for the step up in trip and there's no reason as far as I can see for him to be any better at 10f. He's clearly up to winning decent races but he's about half a stone shy of genuine G1 horses and his lack of a turn of foot will always leave him vulnerable.
 
I'm at my aunt's house where the Dail Mail is read. Some of their racing correspondents are well informed, and one stated today that Authorised will be sold to Godolphin at the end of the season, the owners being friendly with Sheikh Mo. As suggested above in this thread, standing Authorised will give Darley a Montjeu bloodline without having to purchase from Coolmore directly.
 
There are aleady books on this. Those who believe Authorized will start next season in Godolphin's ownership can back their opinion at 2-7 with Boylesports, who quote the colt's existing owners at 7-4 and Coolmore at 14-1.
 
Vodafone Derby winner Authorized has been purchased by Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Stud operation.

The three-year-old was an impressive five-length winner of the Epsom Classic last week and Darley have been quick to snap up the Montjeu colt for an undisclosed sum.

"Authorized has been bought by Darley as a future stallion," read a statement on www.darley.co.uk.

"The horse has been leased back to the current owners Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar.

"He will continue to be trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam and managed for the owners by Mr Tony Nerses."

Authorized has won three of his four career starts and is now set to step back in trip to 10 furlongs for his next outing.

"The intention is that the horse will target the Coral-Eclipse Stakes on July 7," the statement added.
 
They haven't trained much of consequence themselves this season. It's a case of getting busy buying or busy dying.
 
Wouldn't think so Gareth, they're boycotting them at the sales ie. attempting to stop mare owners sending mares to Coolmore stallions - they would be totally ruling out probably the second biggest buyer in the world (after Coolmore themselves).

This way they have their own Coolmore lined stallion but will be standing at Darley under the Darley banner :)
 
Apparently the 'boycott' only means that Sheikh Mohammed won't be bidding for any Coolmore-sired yearlings at the sales or sending any of the Darley mares to Coolmore..

Doesn't seem to apply to all of the family either, as Hamdam al Maktoum's Shadwell operation have a number of Coolmore-sired horses..

The consequences of such fragile egos.. bet Will Farish and the Bluegrass Boys are happy men though..
 
It should be said that It's difficult to buy anything without Sadler's Wells appearing in the pedigree, for example, and he's but one Coolmore stallion.
 
Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jun 7 2007, 09:05 PM
In which case they're just hypocrites.
Click to expand...
Not really.

They are not bidding for Coolmore sired yearlings at the sales, therefore you would expect the prices at the sales to be down, therefore you would expect the value of the stud fee to be reduced, therefore generating less income for their competitor.

The fact that they are willing to take on the occasional proven offspring would have a minimal effect on stud fees.
 
Tell that to the breeder who gets less at the sales because of the boycott only to see them buy the horse later on anyway.
 
I've now done my figures and I've decided to stick by my provisionals.

The times on the day aren't entirely helpful and I've ended up with different going allowances for the sprint races and 10f-12f events. The 'in-betweenie' is Blythe Knight but even the more generous allowance only brings him out on a par with the face value of the collateral form in a race which struck me at the time as being slowly run for the first half.

Normally, I'd be tempted to go with the fastest handicap form and apply the going allowance to the conditions races but Raceform say the pace in Zaham's race "was not that strong" and the fact that the first three all raced prominently would appear to back this up.

On times, Zaham (OR93 / RPR 103) works out 22lbs behind Authorized. I have that figure for Zaham to the ounce on collateral form, so I'm really left with no option but to rate Authorized 125, as above. I do think he's better than the bare form, though.

I also experimented with my 'take the winner out and how would the rest of the race work out' approach.

Had Eagle Mountain won by 2½ lengths and more, I'm sure plenty would have been hailing him a decent Derby winner, but that brings me back to Oath who won by a similar distance, was hailed a good winner and ended up being proven to be well below average. Lucarno (OR93), Salford Mill* (105) and Kid Mambo (104) are all too close up for comfort.

*How on earth was this horse 8/1 second favourite for so long?
 
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