Historical question about the derby

[bdw0617]

I was talking to my dad and he is still hung up about Holy Bull losing the Derby. That is what got me interested in racing.. this "holy bull" had my dad damn near crying and very distraught when I was young and I wanted to know who holy bull was, henceforth I was introduced to horse racing.

What I want to know was, going into the kentucky derby that year, was there ANY doubt that holy bull would lose and why?

I know, I think, he ran in the derby trail a week before the derby. did that have anything to do with his utter failure in that race?

[Sam]

I can barely remember who was in the Derby that year besides Go For Gin, Tabasco Cat, Strodes Creek and Blumin Affair. I remember being fairly indifferent to the field as a whole and didn't care for Holy Bull much at all (before or after the race) and I remember liking the horse even less when Croll started spouting how he'd been "gotten to" before the race and that's why he lost.

[DDT]

He did go off the Derby favorite, but most handicappers had the opinion that he would not win. He came out of the gate and had some trouble early, made a big move then flattened out. He was impressive enough later in the year and was voted champion.

DDT

[majxmom]

I think I remember that he backed up sharply on the backside. Maybe he bled in the race? There had been a lot of talk prior to the Derby about him being able to get a mile and a quarter. When he won the mile and an eighth Florida Derby, it was a big step forward for the people who didn't think he could last, but the way he quit in the Derby did not give a fair shot to any talk of whether he could last a mile and a quarter. He didn't last a half-mile, as I recall. It was one of those perplexing Derby runs that you just have to draw a line through: Point Given, Snow Chief, etc.

[Barn 31 T-breds]

Whenever I want to make the point that any horse, no matter how good, can lose the Derby, I use Holy Bull as my example.

He was far and away, head and shoulders, without a doubt, the best horse of his generation, but was an also ran in the Derby.

If a horse of that caliber can get beat in the Derby, any horse can.

Are you listening, Ricky Dutrow?