EcoVet Performance of the Week: Mendelssohn

When your winning margin is a staggering 18 1/2 lengths, you might just have blown them all away.

Dubai Racing Club // Neville Hopwood

Just how good is Mendelssohn?

Let’s look at his family: he’s a half-brother to grade 1 winner and well-known sire Into Mischief, plus a half-brother to multiple Grade 1 winning mare, the incomparable Beholder. He’s sired by the great Scat Daddy and he sold for a cool $3 million as a yearling. Everything about his pedigree is class.

Or we could look at his race record: he’s already a champion, with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf under his belt. He’s won on the turf at Del Mar and on synthetic in Ireland, and now on the dirt as well in the UAE Derby.

Or we could discuss his international travel: based in Ireland, he shipped across the world to Del Mar, California for the 2017 Breeders’ Cup, then back to Ireland for another win, then to Dubai for the UAE Derby.

Or we could just let this astonishing performance in Saturday’s UAE Derby speak for itself:

Said trainer Aiden O’Brien: “We weren’t sure how he would handle the distance but you have to say he saw it out pretty well! He is naturally quick and has a lot of tactical early speed. He did it the hard way, but he did it so easily.”

The next stop for Mendelssohn, provided the colt comes out of the UAE Derby in good order, is the Kentucky Derby in May. I don’t know about you, but I think I have my pick.

Go Mendelssohn! And go riding.