A win in the New Yorker would surely have given Down The Jazz not only a place in SIM history, which he has already achieved, but it would have set him apart from other 3yo's in that he would have attained SIM imortality. I was prepared to give a similar speech that Fusao Sekiguchi gave right after his Fusaichi Pegasus won the Kentucky Derby; "Down The Jazz is a treasure of the SIM ........ I will keep him in the SIM." .............. LOL!!
But there were two major factors that did not work in Down The Jazz's favor for the New Yorker and to win at this Grade I level, you have to have a complete package. Down The Jazz was not in a Sharp condition going into the New Yorker, this alone seems to be of a dire necessity for young 3yo's at this grade level. It only takes one other horse that is Sharp that could prove to ruin your day.
Something that I learned to do years ago when analyizing past performances of real-life racehorses; In order to provide a better understanding of what is needed for a horse to win you must reason why a horse loses and determine why this happened. The first time that DTJ encountered the distance of 12.0f's (one mile and a half), was in the Sydney Derby on the turf. At that time I felt that he ran a good race on a surface he did not prefer even though I felt he should have been a few lengths better than he was, this did not bother me because he needed this race to win the Bluegrass Derby. Although Down The Jazz was not Sharp for the New Yorker he again lost ground at the 12.0f distance. This means that even if he would have been Sharp for this race, he surely would not have won. I realize now that he has a distance limitation, 12.0f's is not within his capacity.
So, for Down The Jazz not to be Sharp for the New Yorker was a blessing in disguise, it turned out that this race turned into nothing more than a great work out for him because he turned Sharp from that race for the following week. There was just one problem; There aren't any graded races restricted for 3yo's the week after the New Yorker on the dirt. There was a Grade III on the turf restricted for 3yo's but that was in New South Whales with a purse of $150,000 , and that surely did not make any sense to ship that far. I definetely wanted Down The Jazz to stay in Grade I company but the only race like this was for older horses, 3yo+ .
What to do ......, the #1 3yo in the SIM is Sharp and would love to race. Thinking about how extraordinary Down The Jazz is right now as a 3yo; In the 8.5f to 10.0f distance, there isn't another 3yo that can touch him, that may change later in the year but right now he's in a class of his own, a class that no other 3yo has joined. The Michael-Strike Stakes is scheduled for the distance of 9.0f's, a distance that Jazz will definetely flourish at. Even though a Grade I stakes is not a place of where you will probably find a soft spot, when I looked over the early entries for the race it didn't boast of any current TOP older SIM horses, this would surely play to Jazz's advantage. As for the Sharp condition giving a false read and having Jazz be susceptible to Lay-Off or Injury, I reasoned that if this might be the case it surely would have startd to show in the New Yorker.
Do you think I would bet on my own horse at the odds of 32-1?!?!? .............. LOL!!
Down The Jazz made a statement to the older and elite horses in the SIM by finishing in 2nd place and recording the Speed Figure of 112, the highest of any year 2000 , 3yo to date:
"If you think I'm pretty good now, wait till later in the year when I fill out and mature!!"
