Dullahan, two wins on poly track looking to win the Kentucky Derby on dirt
Donegal Racing’s Dullahan has made Keeneland’s poly track his own, and his two wins out of eight career starts so far have come at Keeneland on the synthetic surface, but the Grade 1, $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner was preparing for Churchill Downs’
dirt course where he will run in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.
However, trainer Dale Romans has put all the doubts aside by saying. “He seems to love the track. I don’t see that as being a problem.”
The Kentucky bred Dullahan has had three starts on dirt, and the best he could do on the track was a third place finish in his debut race at Churchill Downs, and the most recent race on dirt was his juvenile season’s last race in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile last fall at Churchill Downs where he came from last with a few furlongs to go to finish fourth.
The son of Even the Score, out of mare Mining My Own by Smart Strike, Dullahan has tested all three surfaces in his short stint with three starts on dirt, two over synthetic surface, and three on turf, and after poly track, Dullahan has looked more effective
on turf rather than dirt.
It’s understandable that horses, who like poly track, excel on grass.
“He can go from zero to 60 like a Ferrari,” the trainer said. “It takes that to win the Kentucky Derby—you need acceleration to get out of trouble. I wouldn’t trade places with anyone right now. He’s a prototype for a Derby horse; he jumps through every
single hoop.”
If Dullahan goes on to win the Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on 5 May, 2012, than he will have run over the Churchill Downs’ dirt surface for the fourth time with a single win to show.
It is shaping up to be a tall order for Dullahan, but he needs to find a strong footing on dirt to take a hold of Union Rags, Bodemeister and Hansen, who would have rectified their weaknesses in the prep races to come good in the Kentucky Derby.
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