Hard efforts on young horses, what does it mean.  No doubt that Dortmund is one of the most talented of the young colts, but now we have a PAIR of  TOPS (an 80.0, 80.3) for Dortmund’s last two races.  Only one horse has run a two races at 80.0 or higher prior to the Kentucky Derby, that was Point Given.  So the data is thin in one respect but it’s really deep in another that being that hitting a number that high doesn’t normally happen this early.  Here is the big difference between Dortmund and Point Given — if memory serves me correctly.  Point Given ran his two 80+ races in the San Felipe and the Santa Anita Derby.  That means he didn’t have much time to recover from his PAIR OF TOPS before the KD.  Dortmund having run the pair as of March 7th, has more time to recover.  It will be curious to see how Bob Baffert handles Dortmund the rest of the way…  It’s not simply about the size of the effort or efforts, but it is also about recovery time…