random derby thoughts

[bdw0617]

according to bloodhorse liason was 6th not union rags.


socal horses killed it this year and are light years as a whole better than the rest of the horses

I'll have another -1st
bodemeister- 2nd
creative cause - 5th
liason- 6th
rousing sermon- 8th

[kimberley mine]

Here's some fun trivia for you.

Every single stallion in I'll Have Another's tail-male line back to Unbreakable has sired at least one winner of a TC race:

Flower Alley: I'll Have Another
Distorted Humor: Funny Cide, Drosselmeyer
Forty Niner: Editor's Note (Belmont)
Mr Prospector: Fusaichi Pegasus
Raise a Native: Majestic Prince (and special mention to his grandson Affirmed and son Alydar)
Native Dancer: Kauai King (Derby)
Polynesian: Native Dancer
Unbreakable: Polynesian (Preakness)

And, you know, along those lines? There IS stamina in the US breed, and some good high-class stamina. AP Indy, Thunder Gulch, Forty Niner, Empire Maker, Dynaformer, Arch, Kingmambo, Tiznow, the Gay Missile female line, Deputy Minister, Pleasant Colony, Giant's Causeway. Dynaformer has a Melbourne Cup winner, Giant's Causeway a Queen's Plate winner, Deputy Minister on the mareline of two successive Belmont winners plus the sire of a Belmont winner, Forty Niner keeps showing up in long-distance pedigrees...it's all there, it's just a matter of writing races for longer-running horses AND training horses to run longer distances AND having jockeys who know how to ride long races.

[Hotwalker]

An enjoyable Derby as both a race and a spectacle.

Union Rags was my Derby pick though I was concerned with the light racing schedule. Judging by Matz's quotes post race, I would be shocked if a jockey change isn't coming. Why didn't he go back to Casellano when he lost Algorithms?

Anyway, I was also heartened by Creative Cause's effort. Bodemeister and Dullahan ran exactly to form. Should be a great year from this group.

[bdw0617]

An enjoyable Derby as both a race and a spectacle.

Union Rags was my Derby pick though I was concerned with the light racing schedule. Judging by Matz's quotes post race, I would be shocked if a jockey change isn't coming. Why didn't he go back to Casellano when he lost Algorithms?

Anyway, I was also heartened by Creative Cause's effort. Bodemeister and Dullahan ran exactly to form. Should be a great year from this group.

a i don't know very many people that would go back to an employee and ask for them to come back after his replacement has proved incompetent.