The summer of 2010 left us with incredible hope and great anticipation for a triple crown winner.With brilliant performance after brilliant performance, Mike Repole's colt Uncle Mo was garnering huge praise and even comparisons to the great Seattle Slew.
Like Slew, Uncle Mo started his career in New York, (the state of bright lights and Broadway.)
And like Slew, Mo crushed his competition in his first start, winning by nearly 15 lengths, his time of 1:09.1 for the 6 furlong distance was also incredible for a debuting 2 year old.
Just like Slew, Mo would go on to win the grade I Champagne Stakes, while running the mile distance in a time of 1:34.2, the exact same time as Slew.
The comparison to Slew seemed to be uncanny, both made 3 starts in their 2 year old season, both were undefeated.
But unlike Slew in his 2 year old season, Mo would race under the twin spires of Churchill Downs, giving us what we thought we be a sign of things to come. The Breeders' Cup Juvenile would be the first time I saw Mo race in person. On a day where the best horses of all ages in the world compete in different divisons and on different surfaces, it would be Uncle Mo who stood out in my mind. Mo dominated the Juvenile, crushing his competition by an easy 4 ¼ lengths. I thought to my self, 2011 will be the year we see a triple crown winner.
Unfortunately, our hopes and dreams of seeing a “Slew like” 3 year old season from Uncle Mo would go out the window in the running of the Wood Memorial, Mo looked flat down the lane, having nothing left in the final furlong as Toby's Corner and Arthur's Tale went right on by him.
Mo left us scratching our heads, wondering what caused such a disappointing performance.
After a few days of examination we would find out the reason for Mo's poor performance, a gastrointestinal infection would be the cause.
The past few weeks leading up to the Derby, Mo would come to Kentucky with tons of questions and rumors, a flashy work on the Sunday before the Kentucky Derby would give us hope that we might see this phenom run, and run healthy. Unfortunately once taken off his medication Mo would take a turn for the worst. As you know, Mo was scratched one day before the Derby.
In the few weeks leading up to the Derby, there were rumors that the G.I. Infection was just a made up excuse for Mo's Un-Mo-Like performance and that he wasn't the same horse he was in his 2 year old season. I tend to disagree with such speculation, all though do to his health, we haven't seen Mo at his best this year, I do believe, when healthy he is the class of this crop.
With Animal Kingdom's infatic win in the Kentucky Derby, all the talk surrounds the possibility of finally having a triple crown winner as heads to the 2011 Preakness.
While I am excited about the thought of this happening, most of my attention has turned to the health of our 2 year old Champion.
Mo has not looked right for awhile now and for those of you that were able to see Uncle Mo on thursday and friday, it was a little scary he just didn't look right. My thoughts and prayers are now being directed to the safe being of this wonderful colt and also with ArchArchArch after his unfortunate injury in the Derby.
So hopefully we'll see Mo return healthy and maybe, just maybe, we'll see a Triple Crown winner in Animal Kingdom. If my prayer is answered we'll see both of these things happen, and these two wonderful colts will meet under the Twinspires in November in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
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