June 7, 2008

From TOW Horse Racing:

Da’Tara is one of the longshots on the board for the Belmont Stakes but it wouldn’t be the first time a Nick Zito trained horse shocked the racing world.

Back in 2004, Zito-trained Birdstone shocked Smarty Jones here in the Belmont Stakes to end that horse's Triple Crown bid.

This horse is generally the front runner early on and has had issues maintaining his early momentum when crunch time came near the end, but he seemed to buck that trend in his last race. 

His speed figures continue to improve and he did well by holding on for a second place finish behind Roman Emperor. 

There are some positives in the bloodline with Da’Tara showing good stamina in longer races due to his father Tiznow, a former Horse of the Year winner. 

If he can maintain his early pace, it won’t be easy for the other horses that hope to come from behind.

Big Brown has gone toe-to-toe with Da’Tara in the past but it wasn’t much of a competition as Brown finished 23 lengths ahead in the Florida Derby. 

With that being said, that was easily the worst speed figure in recent history and this horse has ran well on this track before, getting second place in his racing debut.

You never know what’s going to happen in horse racing and with so many strong finishers in the group, and all it would take for Da’Tara to get his shot at glory would be some bumping of the horses that will likely be clumped behind him. 

I’ve seen much weirder things happen in races and with Zito already showing he has what it takes to pull off a miracle, you just can’t count out this colt.