Dortmund and Hillary Clinton are linked and it was never more evident during a poignant moment during the Donald Trump inauguration. At one point in the telecast, there was a split screen that showed President Barack Obama and President Trump in one half and Hillary in the other half walking into the Capitol with her husband Bill.
The look on Hillary was pure disappointment and Dortmund, if he was capable of sharing that same emotion, certainly would have had the same expression.
Dortmund and Hillary both have ties to the south. Hillary moved to Arkansas in 1974 and was a faculty member at the University of Arkansas. Dortmund was bred in Kentucky. Hillary and Dortmund are both fighters that give it their best every time. Dortmund and Hillary are also winners of multiple elections and races.
Here is where their destinies are intertwined. In that inauguration snapshot, Hillary had to endure the end of the presidency of Obama, who beat her for the nomination and the beginning of the years for Trump, who shocked her in the election in November.
Dortmund, on the other hand, is one of the few runners, if not the only runner, that not only lost to Triple Crown champ American Pharoah multiple times, but was also beaten by the Horse of the Year California Chrome multiple times.
Now, the similarities end for Hillary, who will likely be in the background moving forward.
Dortmund is still fighting and he will live to race another day. In a weird twist of fate, Dortmund has been shifted from the barn of Bob Baffert, who trained American Pharoah, to the barn of Art Sherman. Sherman, of course, has guided California Chrome on his magical mystery tour of winning races and will saddle him for the last time in all likelihood January 28 in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup.
Dortmund’s future is still bright. He has won 8 of his 14 starts, has earned over $1.9 million, and he has taken his act on the road. The son of Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown has not raced since a press and fade effort in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. That will not likely stop him from being very tough when he returns.
Dortmund has won at a number of different venues. He took his second career start at Churchill Downs beating allowance runners by nearly eight lengths. Dortmund then got on a plane and started at Los Alamitos about a month later and took his Grade 1 debut in the Los Alamitos Futurity by head.
Baffert freshened him for this 2015 opener and he had Dortmund primed as he won the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis with a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. The racer made it five in a row taking the Grade 2 San Felipe and then parlayed that win to success in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
Speed horses have a hard time in the Kentucky Derby and Dortmund discovered that in his next start when he set the pace in the Kentucky Derby but could not hold off his stablemate American Pharoah.
After not taking to the sloppy strip in the Preakness, Baffert stopped on Dortmund and let him recoup. He won his next two starts but then faced against his arch-rival California Chrome and it was not pretty. Against California Chrome, Dortmund was forwardly placed but could not close the deal. In a way, it was much like the campaign last year of Hillary Clinton.
Art Sherman has been patient with Dortmund of late. The trainer figures to ease into the process of getting this warrior fit and then ready to compete at a high level. He just started back to the game on January 17 when he went an easy 3-furlongs at Los Alamitos in :36 3/6. Bettors can expect a steady work schedule for Dortmund moving forward, with a four or five-furlong workout next and possibly a start in March or so.
The comeback effort could very well be the Santa Anita Handicap if all goes well.
Here’s hoping that Dortmund’s constituents are happy and that their wallets are filled when he returns to the sport he has given so much to already.
