El Areeb Could Be It
With a new year comes a new wave of Kentucky Derby prospects and excitement. The turn of the calendar really sets the search for “the one” in motion. Eyes begin to turn south to Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and out west to California.
And then there’s wintery New York, home of blustery Aqueduct, where the downgrading of the Wood Memorial says volumes on the Empire State’s declining legitimacy along the Derby trail.
Naturally, the best horses, the big guns, tend to travel down under to where the weather stays warm to garner their Derby points en route to the first Saturday in May. Eventual Triple Crown race winners skip to victory in their winter homes of Florida, Arkansas, and California, all the while New York runs their easily forgotten prep races with their easily forgotten winners who eventually fade into oblivion.
And often, no one remembers the Jerome winner.
When I first heard news of the 11 ¼ length Jerome romp by El Areeb, I didn’t think much of it. Ah, just another not so good horse being made to look good against an especially not so good field. Just another making some minimal early season noise, the January stakes norm.
Then I watched the race.
To myself, there’s a point of difference between an okay horse looking great against a not so great field, and a horse actually just being THAT good despite the not so great field. For myself, it’s just a feeling I get. A sense. I sensed that feeling when I watched Princess of Sylmar blow away her Busanda foes four years ago. And I think I got that same feeling again yesterday.
The ease in which El Areeb demolished his overmatched counterparts was simply too easy to ignore. Watching the effortlessness he evoked as he bounded away and widened from the highly regarded Takaful through the slop was beyond simplistic, not to mention beyond normal. Ears pricked, powerful, unwavering stride is all the gray colt has known for his past three races, which he has won by a combined 25 ¼ lengths. Once he seemed to figure it out, he hasn’t looked back. Easy, easy, too easy.
Many have already been quick to call distance limitations, and sure. El Areeb is a son of the late Exchange Rate, a sprinter/miler who performed well on both dirt and turf, and has thrown some good sprinter/milers of his own. But let us not forget Ball Dancing, G1 winner, daughter of Exchange Rate, and stakes winner at 9f, 11f, and placed at 12f. Ball Dancing was aided by stamina influences on her dam side, but one could argue El Areeb does also with A.P. Indy as his broodmare sire. And his first foray around two turns certainly didn’t appear to phase him.