JC / Railbird

Thursday Notes

Since Odysseus is now #3 on my Kentucky Derby top 10, it was with some relief that I read trainer Tom Albertrani plans to give the Tampa Bay Derby winner, not a seven-week layoff, but another prep before the Kentucky Derby:

We’re probably going to work him either Thursday or Friday, see how he is, and then make a choice between the Blue Grass or Arkansas Derby.

With Rule dropping to #7, largely due to his apparent inability to rate and subsequent third-place finish in the Florida Derby last Saturday, Eskendereya moves to #1. We’ll find out in the April 3 Wood Memorial, which drew 61 nominations (PDF), if the position is deserved.

PDI top 10 for 3/23/10: 1) Eskendereya 2) Lookin at Lucky 3) Odysseus 4) Dublin 5) Sidney’s Candy 6) Caracortado 7) Rule 8) Awesome Act 9) Discreetly Mine 10) Fast Alex Noble’s Promise

The Louisiana Derby is the most significant of three Derby preps scheduled this weekend. Thirteen are entered, including Risen Star winner Discreetly Mine. Not among the starters, intriguing allowance winner Fast Alex: The colt suffered a shin injury and “might be sidelined for a couple months.” (For more about this weekend’s races, sign up for the HRF Derby Prep Alert emails.)

In non-Derby news: David Milch’s “Luck” starts filming at Santa Anita on March 29. “Mr. Mann expressed a strong desire to shoot much of this pilot while we were running live.” The pilot is expected to air on HBO in early 2011.


2 Comments

Love the spreadsheet and appreciate the links as always.

The Louisiana Derby is going to be very tough to handicap. No way Discreetly Mine gets loose on the front end for a stroll this time around…but he might just be the best horse stalking the pace anyway.

I’m looking forward to trying to figure that race out…and then cheering like mad for Hotep!

Posted by Keith-TripleDeadHeat on March 25, 2010 @ 10:26 am

Agree about Discreetly Mine and very curious to see how he’ll do on Saturday. Hotep, you say … I’ll have to look closer at him when I’m handicapping.

Posted by Jessica on March 25, 2010 @ 8:22 pm