MTH Cup – Grade III
1 1/8 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $400.000 Open 3 Year Olds And Up.

I remember the chat last year when three year olds went from dominating older horses to merely competing and there were two or three theories batted around. Firstly there was the ‘bad crop’ explanation suggesting that the three’s of last year for some reason, hadn’t produced the quality of previous years, Secondly there was the ‘development’ explanation which suggested that the three’s were taken back a peg or two in development to make the weight difference less of an issue and lastly there was the thought that weight had been adjusted so it had less of an impact on the results.
In truth it could be any of them as there was never any real confirmation from HRP but one thing is clear whatever happened it is still happening. Here we had a three year old working 1.36 and 1 Just a tick behind the winner and faster than the recent works of the other older horses. The horse had finished a good second at the same grade against his own age group last time out and was in receipt of 5 Lb’s. Now in the past that formula would’ve added up to an easy win for the three year old but in this race and certainly last season that didn’t happen. Now don’t get me wrong, this is great for the game and great news. Somehow and for some reason now we have only the very best three year olds competing with older horses just as it should be and these races have become far more competitive and we are seeing many more old warriors willing to stay out of retirement and build their own fan clubs.
Well, enough of my thoughts and onto the MTH Cup result where a seven year old went past the 2K in purse winnings to take the race in a pulsating finish.

1st Eclipse My Knowledge Nakamura Stables Murrill M

Fifth in the BC Dirt mile last year this grand seven year olds looks to have earned a ticket to the big dance again with the perfect race from the perfect draw. Stalking the even pace he had too many guns at the end using every inch of his experience to out gun his younger rival.

2nd Penalty Shot Maxmillion Farm Velazquez J R

When asked to do so this one has been an effective front runner and i think he gave himself every chance here with leading them for most of this race before the better horse got up to beat him. He had to work hard early from the wider draw mainly because you have to be a fair way clear here at HRP before crossing the invisible force field that surrounds a horse so he used up a fair bit early on and this told through the final furlong. A good second and being four there will be some improvement to come.

3rd Boardwalk Nakamura Stables Wilson E J

Found a good spot from the wide draw but simply wasn’t as good as the first two but kept on well enough for third.

4th Crimson Dragon TwinTowersRacing Gonzalez Ru

Stayed on well to take fourth and i am sure we will see this one with some black type to his name before long.

It would be interesting to hear people’s opinions about why the older horses have fared better in the past two seasons. Use the feedback below and maybe we can get some good feedback to bring together report to try and get some comment from support.

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES