JC / Railbird - A Little Perspective

A Little Perspective

Count me among the people who had begun wondering if maybe the males of the 2008 3-year-old crop were inferior to the 2007 bunch. Steve Haskin — deep in his weekly ode to every potential Kentucky Derby starter — provides a helpful corrective to that thinking:

At this time last year, Street Sense hadn’t even started. Hard Spun had just finished fourth in the Southwest Stakes as the 1-2 favorite behind Teuflesberg, Officer Rocket, and Forty Grams. Curlin had only a maiden win at seven furlongs in his only career start. Tiago had finished seventh in the Robert Lewis Stakes (gr. II) in his first stakes attempt. And Any Given Saturday had won the Sam Davis as the 1-5 favorite against a poor field.

There are three Derby preps this weekend, two of note: Risen Star winner Pyro will take on a deep field that includes Tale of Ekati and Majestic Warrior in the Louisiana Derby, while Giant Moon will try to remain undefeated against the likes of Saratoga Russell and Eaton’s Gift in the Gotham Stakes. At Bay Meadows, the El Camino Real drew a field of 10 — including Coast Guard, scratched from last Saturday’s Sham Stakes due to a minor ankle injury — which might yield one or two briefly interesting Derby prospects.

Posted by JC in Racing on 03/04/2008 @ 5:40 pm / Tagged Kentucky Derby / Follow @railbird on Twitter