Shackleford jolts Dale Romans with sheer disappointment after finishing seventh in the Grade 1, $500, 000 Donn Handicap on 11th February
Associating his hopes with the 2011 Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford, did not turn out to be pleasing for the trainer, Dale Romans. The four-year-old colt finished seventh in the Grade 1, $500, 000 Donn Handicap on 11th February at Gulfstream
Park, Florida.
Dale Romans wanted a far more lucrative year for the W. D. Cubbedge and Michael Lauffer owned Shackleford who had earned $1.98 million in the year 2011 but the trainer fell victim to ruthless disappointment. He was highly speculative about the colt’s chances
in the seasonal debut which was to set the pace for the rest of the year.
The Kentucky bred colt of Forestry out of Unbridled was to head for the richest of the races in the UAE, the $10 million Dubai World Cup on 31st March, if the chance will still be availed or not, cannot be said just as yet.
It was an early lost race for Shackleford who faded into the initial furlongs of the race and was beaten out of the competition without really putting in any substantial effort for victory whatsoever.
The freshly turned four-year-old colt was the 3/1 favourite for the Grade 1, Donn Handicap, a clueless situation as compared to the demeaning performance that the horse put up on the 1 1/8 mile dirt track.
It is almost as if Shackleford’s luck froze once he won the Grade 1, Preakness Stakes on 21st May at Pimlico Race Course as ever since then, he has stayed winless in the next five starts, which has gone up to six now after the miserable defeat
that he encountered in his 2012 seasonal debut.
It is not that the winner of one of the legs of the Triple Crown was hopeless in all the races after the Preakness Stakes as he did pull out a decent second at three instances through the course of the previous year. One of the major races on the calendar,
the Grade 1Haskell Invitational, saw him finishing second.
There came a break when he finished a troubled eighth in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes but rolled up his sleeves and got back in business by parking second in the Grade 1, Indiana Derby and concluded the trio by being the runner up in the Grade 1, Breeders’
Cup Dirt Mile on 5th November 2011.
If Shackleford can sustain his racing stature for the remaining season or not, will unveil through the outcomes of his future races.
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