Good afternoon people


I thought I would start a thread discussing the Derby. I believe the Derby is far from a foregone conclusion. I feel that there are some doubts over both of the leading contenders and therefore their current prices do not provide an accurate reflection of their prospects.

There may be some doubts over Gallant Guru's ability to handle a "bog" track. Being out of a Don’t Say Halo mare suggests that a rain affected track would present an significant obstacle. However there appear to be some redeeming factors given that his sire is Montjeu. While it is not possible to say that Gallant Guru will be able to run well on a soft track some of the performances by other Montjeu 3 year olds indicate this is possible. Hurricane Run's recent Arc win was on a soft track. It also appears that Montjeu is producing 3 year old stayers which are in the upper echelons. Of all English Derby winners of the last 30 years only 3 have had their effort replicated by their offspring. Motivators win in the Derby this year ensured Montjeu was one of these sires. His progeny appear to be very talented 3 year olds with Motivator also winning the Coral Eclipse and the Irish Champion. When you add the efforts of Scorpion it appears Montjeu is a boom sire of 3 year old stayers. While the Adelaide form was questionable Gallant Guru then went on to comfortably win the Geelong Classic. The jump to 2500 will only help his chances and raises some doubts over the prospects of Headturner and Pengragon.


Headturner's breeding does not suggest that any soft ground would be a problem. His Anabaa genes suggest he would be an average performer and being out of a Zabeel mare suggests there is even potential for him to excel on a rain effected track.
However the Anabaa breeding raises some doubts over his ability to run out a strong 2500. There do not appear to be many sons or daughters of Anabaa that have had any notable success in races with a distance of more than 1400. Horses like Donna Natalia (AJC Gimcrack Stks.1000m (L) 3rd STC Silver Slipper 1200m (G3) AJC Kindergarten Stks 1200m (G3)),Miss Anabaa(1st Ballyogan Stakes (Ire-G3). Naas Sprint S. LR. (Ire). 3rd Prix Servanne LR. (FR****) and Taikun (STC Star Kingdom Stks 1200m (G3), Tsigane(Daytona H.(SA,6.5FT), 2nd Prix Asselco (L-Fr), 3rd Prix de Bremond (L-Fr), 3rd Godolphin Mile(G2), 2005 Wickerr H.(Del Mar)and Anabaa's greatest son Yell have not run and won races middle to classic distances.

His notable success was Precsion who has able to win the Hong Kong Cup over 2400 and to a lesser Rouvres who won some French and American G2 and G3 races between 8 and 8 furlongs. extent 2002: 1st Prix Jean Prat(Fr,G1)


Now casting our attention to Pendragon. His wet track prospects do not appear to be very shaky. They somewhat resemble those of Headturner as he is by Elnadim, whose progeny are neither brilliant nor poor on a wet track and out of a Grosvenor mare suggesting he may excel. The distance of the derby may also be questionable given his sires breeding. The fact that Headturner was making ground up very rapidly in their last encounter adds some support to this view.

One may counter by saying that both are out of mares with good stay pedigrees. However I would always rather the staying genes to come from the sire as is the case with Gallant Guru. Therefore given the current prices and the all conquering performances of Monjeu 3 year olds throughout the world I feel that the more appealing investment is Gallant Guru. However I am open to persuasion that I may have erred in my preliminary analysis. I look forward to hearing from you soon.