Races to look forward to in 2011

Hibs' thread got me thinking about 2011 and what we can expect in the bigger races?
Here are a few questions I post to you guys and would like to hear your answers to.

Which horses do you fancy for these upcoming races in 2011?

Queen's Plate:
J&B Met:
Dubai World Cup:
Colts and fillies 3 year old triple crown contenders:
Kentucky Derby:
Epsom Derby:
English Oaks:
Vodacom July:
Gold Cup:

These races or sort of highlights of the first part of my racing year. I hope you guys have some early fancies. I know you may perhaps be a little bored tomorrow after all the presents have been opened and all the food has been consumed and there is no racing to be found anywhere!!!

I will post my fancies in due course!

Again, happy holidays to everyone!

Queen's Plate: Ebony Flyer past the post
J&B Met: Bravura
Dubai World Cup: Gitano Hernando desperate last year
Colts and fillies 3 year old triple crown contenders:
Kentucky Derby: Uncle Mo 5/1 looks great Value!
Epsom Derby: Dubai Prince don`t think Frankel will stay
English Oaks: Chrysanthemum
Vodacom July: Bravura
Gold Cup: Hospitality

Here are my early selections:

Queen's Plate: Pocket Power
J&B Met: Mother Russia
Dubai World Cup: Gitano Hernando or perhaps Bold Silvano?
Colts and fillies 3 year old triple crown contenders: No standouts on the highveld for me right now.
Kentucky Derby: I feel Uncle Mo may be suspect over two turns. I like Comma to the Top provisionally.
Epsom Derby: Frankel
English Oaks: Can't find the provisional fields.....no idea
Vodacom July: Pierre Jourdan
Gold Cup: Two Strikes/Noblewood.......for sure a Stephen Page/Mrs. O double!!!!

Hope we can back some winners this coming year!!!!

Tommy, Uncle Mo has already not only won around 2 turns, but over the track where the Kentucky Derby is held. Right now he must be considered as an odds-on choice in the Derby, one of the shortest winter-book favorites in years, if they still had such a thing. He looks like Super Saver all over again. Super Saver won big around 2 turns in Louisville at 2 and went on to win the Derby. Uncle Mo is an infinitely superior animal to Super Saver.

As for Comma to the Top, Californians have seen these local horses for years. He is by a pure sprinter. He may have a career highlight in the Futurity. I look for him to win one or two Triple Crown preps and then find his level.

I wish him well, as he is owned in part by Gary Barber, with whom Team Valor has raced many good horses over the years. But he is a very precocious Miler type and he has already had, by modern standards, a virtual career in the U. S. with 10 races already.

Thanks for the info Barry. I thought that Uncle Mo was supremely impressive in the Juvenile at Churchill but that was over 7 furlongs? He looked full of speed and that was really the only reason I had my doubts about the mile and a quarter of the Derby. He is visually a very impressive animal and I guess you should know him well as Pluck was a former stablemate of his?

Ok, you have swayed me. I'll go with Uncle Mo provisionally unless something real special steps out on the tracks in the spring. Will there be enough time to gather graded stakes races in the new season?

I'm still bummed about The Pamplemousse that missed the Derby of his year. I thought he was very special and would have loved to have seen him run. Do you know what happened to him after his injury?

Tommy, Uncle Mo won over 8.5 furlongs on Breeders' Cup day.

I think you better stick to horse playing instead of horse picking, as The Pamplemousse bowed a tendon because he was, in my own personal experience, the single crookedest moving and conformed individual it has ever been my misfortune to see standing, walking or moving. It was gut wrenching to watch him run, especially on the stretch curve and down the lane, because he had double reverse corkscrew action in both front limbs, which is very rare indeed.

He enters stud this year and it will take a brave soul to send a mare to him.

You are a great analyst of form. Stick with that!

Barry, I apologize if you've answered this in another thread, but what plans do you guys have for Pluck?

I read somewhere that they were considering the Irish guineas

Thanks, Hib. A European turf campaign could be very interesting.

Bravura out of Queens Plate, not sure why but would think his Cape Season is in jeopardy.

Magic, Pluck is being pointed for the May 21 Irish Two Thousand Guineas, with the French version as a back up.

Our thinking is to avoid Frankel at Newmarket, hoping he will run well enough in the English Guineas to warrant a try in the Derby.

Pluck is trying to become the only American-based runner following Fourstars Allstar in 1991 to pull the nifty trick.

We hope to give Pluck two American races before he sets off for The Curragh.

Barry Irwin Wrote:

---

> Tommy, Uncle Mo won over 8.5 furlongs on Breeders'
> Cup day.
>
> I think you better stick to horse playing instead
> of horse picking, as The Pamplemousse bowed a
> tendon because he was, in my own personal
> experience, the single crookedest moving and
> conformed individual it has ever been my
> misfortune to see standing, walking or moving. It
> was gut wrenching to watch him run, especially on
> the stretch curve and down the lane, because he
> had double reverse corkscrew action in both front
> limbs, which is very rare indeed.
>
> He enters stud this year and it will take a brave
> soul to send a mare to him.
>
> You are a great analyst of form. Stick with that!
>


My apologies for the distance "brain fart". Not sure what I was thinking
Tis true that where physical conformation is concerned I don't have a great deal of experience, but I was never going to purchase The Pamplemousse, I was only going to enjoy it run! I thought it had a chance in the Derby because it set a frantic pace and still managed to quicken off that good pace. That, for me is a sign of a decent horse. Perhaps he ran on hover craft for all I know, still doesn't detract from the fact I enjoyed watching him race and I also thought he was a decent looker from watching him run.
Having said all of this I was still very new to US horseracing in 2009 so maybe I was bamboozled by the bright lights of the US racing industry?

Guess if I can find an ante post market for the Derby offering decent odds on Uncle Mo I should consider investing my wife's 2 pieces of jewelery?