Post by Cruisey on Mar 12, 2015 21:47:06 GMT -5
After a disappointing week, three year old Refute has had a fairly unresponsive start to the Year Fifteen season. The son of DW Flamekissed and Finale Slew has hit a much-unwanted slump in his racing career, despite looking good in the colt’s distant future. Despite his fabulous workouts and impressive times, the colt hasn’t been responding in his races. Carter had originally planned for Ralph to compete in the Turf Triple Crown, seeing as when he was a two year old, the colt answered well when it came to the right time. However, his recent disappointments in both Turf Triple Crown prep races have Carter rethinking his plans.
“The colt is no doubt in top shape and one of the toughest horses in the turf division this year,” Carter stated to The Eighth Pole in a recent interview.
“His workouts have been extremely impressive and he has been putting in fast times, I just don’t understand where he is going wrong.” After a 5th place in the West Virginia Derby, Refute quickly bounced back to get a respective 2nd place in the Water Lily Stakes. Carter found confidence in the colt and hoped that he would be prepped and ready for the same competition in the Palm Beach Stakes.
“Unfortunately, he fell to the same placing as he did in the first race. By now, he should know that the competition is exactly the same as last years in the juvenile turf races.” Carter also said that the colt is following the same footsteps as his two year old season, where he had 8 races out of the money and was placing a consistent fourth.
“Anyone is blind if they don’t see the raw talent in this horse. He’s known to pull off an upset when it really counts, and all we can do for now is keep training hard and race him in undercard until he really seems to be doing well.”
The next Turf Triple Crown prep race isn’t until April, and Carter is hoping to get the colt a win within the next few weeks.
“We might pull him from the Prince Cup at Green Horse, but in the meantime, those turf horses better watch out, because Ralph wants his revenge.”
