Little horse and a little Cajun = a lot of money at 50 to 1

[moonhill]

I am not that far into the horse world, but I would guess the gelding issue is part of the reason for the $9500 value. 

Brucer, I was wondering about the breed of the horse not necessarily the nationality.  Speaking of nationality, it was nice to see the rich dude from the Mid-East loose to such a horse.  A photo showed him not smiling before the race, I can't imagine him smiling after either.

This reminds me of the movie Seabiscuit.

Tim

[crtreedude]

It is very possible he might not have won if he was a stallion. Horses, in my experience, put on size after becoming geldings. And, as the saying goes down here, the dumbest animal there is, is a stallion. 

[CLL]

With race horses usually pedigree dictates how long you wait on gelding them. Sometimes its there attitude, some just get mean and its not worth the trouble. Prime example, John Henry was a great race horse and won millions of dollars, but he was so mean as a two year old that they had to geld him to get his mind back on racing. It's hard to complain on having a gelding win the derby when the winner got well over a million dollars.

[DanG]

Pedigree has a lot to do with the initial cost too, along with a colt's appearance at sale time.  There is an awful lot of skill necessary to be a trainer, and picking a good horse is part of it.  In spite of that, fielding a Derby winner is still about 99% luck.  That horse didn't have any idea he was a cheapo. :D

[crtreedude]

I just sent two two year old horses off to recuperate. They ain't fixed yet, but it is coming quickly! You know when it is time when they start biting the mares...

They can go from being cute, to a royal pain in a few weeks.  >:( Oh well, it is easy to fix...  :D

[Corley5]

  I just read that this horse was bought by Mark Allen and partner Leonard Blach for $400,000 last year before the Breeder's Cup.  The $$$ came from the sale of VECO a now defunct oil field services company.  Mark's father Bill was the founder of the company and was also charged in 07 with bribing Alaskan officials.  As part of a plea deal Mark and other family members recieved immunity and Bill has not been sentenced yet.

[Banjo picker]

I think the reason he did so well, was he didn't like all that mud and dirt getting flung in his face, and knew the only way to stop it was to get in front and stay there... :D ;D ;D ;D ;)  Tim