As the great Allen Iverson once said, “We talkin’ bout practice… not a game… not a game… not a game… we talkin’ bout practice…”
But if practice was a leading indicator of upcoming performance — and in horse racing it often is — Forbidden Kingdom is damn near unbeatable. Of course, he’ll have to prove it once it’s a real game.
Forbidden Kingdom, the 3 year old son of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah out of the mare Just Louise, has dominated the morning practices. His breezes on the Santa Anita track ranging from 3 furlongs to 6 furlongs over the last couple months have been dominating. Note in the chart below the right-hand column for “Rank”. That shows how Forbidden Kingdom’s times rank among all horses who breeze at that track and at that distance on that day. Info courtesy of his Equibase Workouts page.
You can see this he has posted four consecutive “bullet workouts” meaning the #1 ranked time for the day, and five of his last six have been bullets. It’s an impressive stat-line, and both his trainer and the workout jockeys say that he’s been relaxed and not over-working. That’s a great sign, meaning that on race-day he should have some energy left in the tank for a strong finish.
Unfortunately, Forbidden Kingdom’s finishes have not been in the winner’s circle of late. He finished 5th in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship in October, and 6th in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby last April. It was at the Santa Anita Derby where an injury was discovered that knocked him out of Kentucky Derby contention.
Prior to that he won two consecutive stakes victories and was in the money in five consecutive stakes races. If he can stay healthy he’s still got a great future. He certainly has the pedigree to win Grade 1 stakes races.
The plan, according to Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, is to target the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on December 26th. In order to stay sharp for that race, he’ll be entered in an Allowance company race on November 20th at Del Mar. These Allowance races are often littered with high-end horses running to stay sharp so every now and again you’ll find some great match-ups.
Hopefully Forbidden Kingdom comes out of the race in good order and then throws one more blow-out type of workout (a short run to stay fit) before the DEC 26th Malibu Stakes.
While it’s unfortunate that the injury earlier in the year kept him out of the Kentucky Derby (the prize race for any 3 year old colt), he looks set to have a strong 4 year old campaign in 2023. But before we even get that far, let’s hope for a trip back to the winner’s circle in his November and December races.
