What's up with Sinister Minister?

freshman · Postby **freshman** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:46 pm

I really liked him. His wire-to-wire win by 9 lengths in the Bluegrass was impressive.

I seem to recall that he came out of the Derby with talk about an injury? Does anyone recall what it was or if it was significant? Or just an excuse, err, I mean explaination by Baffert and his connections for his poor performance and 16th place finish?

I just looked him up and turns out he had a start 9/4 at Del Mar in the Windy Sands H. (not graded). He finished fourth. He was apparently a cryptochid and underwent surgery to remove one of his boys in early October and is back in training

I guess I am glad he's not been retired but I also hoped to hear better news. Anyone know any details about him?

Derring · Postby **Derring** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:41 pm

I've been wondering about him, too. Haven't heard a thing.....

LaTroienne · Postby **LaTroienne** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:12 pm

He also had a foot bruise before the WS.

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=news&id=19944

angelsprite · Postby **angelsprite** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:36 pm

I like Sinister Minister too. The Prime Minister is his broodmare sire, a son of Deputy Minister who was in the top fifty national leading sires before he was purchased by Joe McDermott to bring some good blood to Texas. I guess people thought he was brought here because he wasn't siring. The fact was he was rising on the list at the time of the purchase. He has been forgotten here and it's so sad.
Anyway, Sinister Minister apparently cracked a hoof badly in the Derby. Personally, I think he and Barbaro clipped when Barbaro came over in front of him and Sinister Minister immediately got sucked back.
I watched his race that he ran fourth in. The horse hadn't had an out and was only fit for about 6 furlongs, which is what he ran well in the lead, then wore out and finished fourth. I wouldn't have run him past 6 his first race back after so long a layoff.
I'm glad he isn't retiring. I expect him to come back and do good things.
I have a son of The Prime Minister and a daughter, the one I was offering the lease on. Everytime Sinister Minister runs, I watch.

freshman · Postby **freshman** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:20 pm

Good to hear about this guy.

Angelsprite, I'm glad to hear your account of his last race. Too bad he was interrupted by his surgery before running back. Does anyone know if there are any plans to start him again this year?

Hopefully he'll be set up to have a good 4 year old season. He sure is fun to watch.

angelsprite · Postby **angelsprite** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:51 pm

Viney,
I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up with Champion Older Male for his 4 year old season if they bring him back right. I'm so glad he's just getting his reproductive organ problem handled. I was worried that he had injured himself in training after his last race.
He really is fun to watch, but all The Prime Minister line horses like to run that way. They go on the lead right out of the gates. My stallion Churchhill won his 6F allowance maiden race at SHRP by 6 3/4 lengths having wired the race, just running further away from them as he went. The pick of Churchhill on my blog site is a different win and he wired that race too. We're standing him for the 2007 season. The filly I have, Prime Precious looks just like him and she is a speedball too, but she just keeps going like the energizer bunny. We haven't raced her yet. We're hoping to get more people involved for a serious racing campaign for her.
I'm hoping Sinister Minister will come back soon. I'm sad everytime I look at the BC notifications and no works for him on there.

Tairaterces · Postby **Tairaterces** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:58 pm

The curse of A.P. Indy lives on . . . . . . .

T
:wink:

Easy Goer · Postby **Easy Goer** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:08 am

hello all...Sin Minister had the injury before the derby, he had one of those bad hooves thingies where they had to have him where a special show, I think it was a Z bar but maybe a 3/4 shoe something like that.

Baffert said as much on nat'l TV on thurs before the race. We were all over this on another discussion board so its not like it was any secret or anything. That did not stop people from betting on him, although it did for me.

It seemed obvious from watching his pre derby races that there was some sort of ailment with this horse. The way he bore in that one race seemed almost a sure sign of a foot problem. Probably this is why Baffert said this on tv, it was prolly obvious to many.

So dont get on Baffert for this, he was upfront about this horses ailments before the derby.

Cant recall if he was injured in the derby he might have been.