What legacy? What intact?
Clearly, Discreet Cat has rare ability, the kind that separates him from the equine crowd. And quickly. He gave a glimpse of that brilliance in Saratoga last year with the kind of acceleration that, at once, takes your breath away and blows a race wide open. And he did the same thing in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile, only adding classy determination to his gifted speed, a trait probably worth eight figures to his owners in future stud fees.
But between those two races came the Breeders' Cup Sprint, the race he ducked. The Cigar win was seen as more meaningful to a future breeding career. On paper,it figured to be the easier spot. His handlers made a stud horse that day, but lost many of racing's true fans.
Horse lovers and gamblers want to see their racehorses compete and excel before thrusting greatness upon them. A legacy is what you leave behind after first having compiled a body of work. Discreet Cat doesn't have one of those.
It's good that he's coming back to America now. He can begin to build that body of work. But he's a Forestry and their kind is brittle. He was bred for speed and he has that in spades. He will race at suitably shorter distances. There's no disgrace in that. Not all good horses were meant to carry their speed 10 furlongs. The only thing a good horse needs to do is to run regularly. And just win, baby.
