Drosselmeyer Equipped with Dynaflow
by Roger Lyons
The first car I drove as a teenager was a 1950 Buick Special. The starter was engaged by switching on the ignition and pressing the accelerator all the way to the floor. It never failed to start. The way Mike Smith guided Drosselmeyer to the outside, keeping him in stride and in the clear and then wore down the leaders in the stretch reminds me of that 1950 Buick Special. When you take off in a 1950 Buick Special, it goes from zero to whatever without any gear changes. That’s because the 1950 Buick Special had a Dynaflow transmission, and that’s exactly what Drosselmeyer has.
Bob Baffert has been quoted on his preference for horses with tactical speed, horses that can adapt their run to the way a race unfolds. That’s certainly an advantage in most races, just as surely as not having tactical speed–quick acceleration, the ability to shift gears during the running of a race–is a limitation. It’s been a problem for Drosselmeyer all along.
It’s truly a beautiful thing, though, when observation yields a plan based on a realistic assessment of a horse’s strengths, and then that plan is perfectly and successfully executed. Bill Mott, Mike Smith, and the team behind Drosselmeyer showed how the Belmont, perhaps more so than any other race, can play to the smooth ride, the horse equipped with Dynaflow.
Posted by Roger Lyons on Monday, June 7, 2010 at 5:32 am.
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The Travails of Drosselmeyer
by Roger Lyons
Distorted Humor gets at least one superior runner out of about every seventh or eighth mare that produces at least one foal by him, counting winners of unrestricted stakes and horses that run at least second in a G1 or G2 race. In order to have a record like that, a stallion has to have a broad reach into the genealogical range of the broodmare population. Yet, inevitably, even the best stallions are challenged by certain otherwise important influences.
This brings up the interesting case of Drosselmeyer (Distorted Humor-Golden Ballet, by Moscow Ballet). He qualified as a superior runner in my system when he beat every horse except Fly Down in the Dwyer S. (G2), but anyone who’s watched the horse could see he has talent. Even so, he still hasn’t won a major stakes, nor was he able to meet the expectations represented by his challenging route to qualifying for the Kentucky Derby despite talent superior, arguably, to some of the horses that actually did qualify. For some reason, Drosselmeyer hasn’t been able to keep the promise. It’s a mystery.
It happens that Drosselmeyer’s dam, Golden Ballet, by Moscow Ballet, represents one of Distorted Humor’s most prickly issues with the broodmare population. Distorted Humor is out of a Danzig mare, and popular thinking about pedigree would suggest that Distorted Humor would work well with mares that resonate with Danzig, mares that have strains of Northern Dancer, the dams of which, like that of Danzig, trace to Teddy–maybe even mares that return Danzig himself.
Well, it isn’t so. The two most notable Northern Dancer strains whose dams trace to Teddy are Nijinsky II and Storm Bird. Of the 68 mates with Nijinsky II in their ancestries through Distorted Humor’s 2007 crop, only five have produced superior runners; and of the 56 mates with Storm Bird in their ancestries, only four have done so. What tells the tale, though, is that not even one of his 27 mates with Danzig in their ancestries has produced a superior runner.
The problem is that Distorted Humor wants strains of Northern Dancer whose dams contrast genealogically with his own strain, which is Danzig. After all, four of his seven mates with Sadler’s Wells in their ancestries have produced superior runners. Obviously, the problem is not Northern Dancer, with which Distorted Humor has an average strike rate overall in spite of his poor records with Nijinsky II, Storm Bird, and Danzig.
Drosselmeyer’s mysterious problem could be that he is out of a Nijinsky II-line mare whose second dam is by Storm Bird. Fortunately, on the other hand, his dam has a lot going for Distorted Humor.
Moscow Ballet, although by Nijinsky II, is out of a mare by Cornish Prince, with which Distorted Humor has a strike rate of 3/13. The big push, though, probably comes from Slew o’ Gold, sire of Drosselmeyer’s second dam, with which Distorted Humor has a strike rate of 2/6. That’s confirmed by his strike rates of 14/88 with Seattle Slew and 22/137 with Slew o’ Gold’s broodmare sire, Buckpasser.
How Drosselmeyer’s complex pedigree mix will resolve in his Belmont effort remains to be seen, but a horse’s pedigree is his fate, and fate gives no quarter.
Posted by Roger Lyons on Monday, May 24, 2010 at 9:00 am.