Friday Morning Notes
– Jockey Gabe Saez will ride Eight Belles if she goes in the Kentucky Derby, said trainer Larry Jones. The filly will be entered in both the Oaks and the Derby, with the decision for which race she starts in resting on the post position draw.
– Brad Free rethinks likely Derby favorites Colonel John and Big Brown: “The closer one examines their last starts, the less appealing they become” (DRF+).
– Del Mar will water its Polytrack this summer. “Our goal is to lessen the difference between afternoon and morning,” said racing director Tom Robbins (DRF). Horsemen complained last year that the track’s consistency varied across the day, and that a lack of moisture was causing the track to slow down too much in the afternoon.
– Meanwhile, at Santa Anita, trainers are complaining that last Sunday’s meeting with Magna chairman Frank Stronach was fixed so that only synthetic sympathizers were present. “A stacked deck would be a polite way of describing it,” said trainer John Sadler. “It was a complete farce” (Star-News).
– Dick Powell laments Sky Beauty’s exclusion from the Hall of Fame: “We say we want a drug-free, level-playing field and yet we are punishing Sky Beauty for her record at other tracks where those jurisdictions permitted Lasix.”
– Closing day flyer: KEE, R10, Glorious Cause (ML 12-1).
– Guest blogger Ed DeRosa heads to Louisville today. Look for his reports from Churchill beginning this weekend.
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