Here’s the Derby field, with jockeys and morning line:
| 1 |
Jazil |
Fernando Jara |
30-1 |
| 2 |
Steppenwolfer |
Robby Albarado |
30-1 |
| 3 |
Keyed Entry |
Pat Valenzuela |
30-1 |
| 4 |
Sinister Minister |
Victor Espinoza |
12-1 |
| 5 |
Point Determined |
Rafael Bejarano |
12-1 |
| 6 |
Showing Up |
Cornelio Velasquez |
20-1 |
| 7 |
Bob and John |
Garrett Gomez |
12-1 |
| 8 |
Barbaro |
Edgar Prado |
4-1 |
| 9 |
Sharp Humor |
Mark Guidry |
20-1 |
| 10 |
A.P. Warrior |
Corey Nakatani |
15-1 |
| 11 |
Sweetnorthernsaint |
Kent Desormeaux |
10-1 |
| 12 |
Private Vow |
Shaun Bridgmohan |
50-1 |
| 13 |
Bluegrass Cat |
Ramon Dominguez |
30-1 |
| 14 |
Deputy Glitters |
Jose Lezcano |
50-1 |
| 15 |
Seaside Retreat |
Patrick Husbands |
50-1 |
| 16 |
Cause to Believe |
Russell Baze |
50-1 |
| 17 |
Lawyer Ron |
John McKee |
4-1 |
| 18 |
Brother Derek |
Alex Solis |
3-1 |
| 19 |
Storm Treasure |
David Flores |
50-1 |
| 20 |
Flashy Bull |
Mike Smith |
50-1 |
Free past performances are available from Brisnet and the Daily Racing Form.
More Derby news >
Posted by JC in Racing on 05/03/2006 @ 5:00 pm / Tagged Kentucky Derby / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– Kentucky Derby post positions will be drawn late this afternoon; a full field of 20 is entered. While Flashy Bull is in, thanks to Mister Triester’s defection, Sunriver and Sacred Light (21st and 22nd on the graded earnings list) were shut out. Trainer Todd Pletcher is already making alternate plans for Sunriver. “I would consider the Peter Pan … or the Sir Barton,” said Pletcher on Tuesday. Trainer Dave Hofmans entered Sacred Light in an allowance race that’ll be run on the undercard.
ESPN will air the draw from 5-6 p.m. Over on the Blinkers Off blog, Joe has done some homework and come up with starting position stats to keep in mind while handicapping this Saturday’s race. Middle positions and the auxiliary gate were popular last year — trainer Nick Zito put favorite Bellamy Road in the 16th spot, Pletcher placed Bandini in the 15th, and Afleet Alex went into the 12th — it’ll be interesting to see if those stalls are similarly favored today.
– There are knocks against all three of the likely favorites: Lawyer Ron has low Beyers, Brother Derek prepped in California against small fields, and Barbaro will go into the Derby off a five-week layoff, which trainer Michael Matz doesn’t think is much of an issue. “I just don’t understand it,” he said. “If somebody could explain it to me, maybe I would understand it more.” Bill Finley tries:
The last horse to win the Derby off a layoff of more than four weeks was Needles way back in 1956. Since, 33 have tried and lost. That includes the one-two finishers in last year’s Florida Derby, High Fly and Noble Causeway. Both ran miserably five weeks later at Churchill Downs.
Matz has a point when he says that the Florida Derby was switched to five weeks before the Derby only last year and that prior to that there were no significant preps run on that spot on the calendar. He believes that there’s not much of a sample to go on when assessing horses coming into the Kentucky Derby off five-week layoffs, and he may be right.
The five-week layoff is a problem for most horses — it’s one reason I’ll probably toss Sharp Humor — but Matz is right that Barbaro is one horse where the five-week layoff rule doesn’t really apply. If Barbaro loses, it won’t have anything to do with the timing of his prep schedule — this is a colt, after all, who’s run (and won) every race of his career off a five to eight week layoff — it’ll be because he doesn’t show the same late kick on the dirt that he does on the turf. In both his dirt starts, Barbaro ran slow closing fractions. Watch the Holy Bull and see how quickly Great Point gains on him in the final sixteenth. Should Barbaro get the lead in the Derby, he’ll be vulnerable to a closer.
– Sweetnorthernsaint is the wise-guy pick, but could he be the horse to beat?
– More Derby news >
Posted by JC in Racing on 05/03/2006 @ 11:45 am / Tagged Kentucky Derby / Follow @railbird on Twitter
“What about the first horse I ever bet on? That was in Lexington, Kentucky, where I had gone to seek my fortune in an atmosphere favorable to the competitive spirit. (I had held three or four jobs around New York that winter, but they were prosy things at best and I felt I was losing my fine edge so I got out.) My first horse was a female named Auntie May. She was an odd-looking animal and an eleven-to-one shot, but there was this to be said for her — she came in first…. Kentucky was lovely that spring. I got twenty-two dollars from the contest and would have let it go at that if I had not chanced to fall in with some insatiable people who were on their way to Louisville to enter other contests. I went along with them. It seems I got hooked in Louisville. The Derby was a little too big for me, I guess. Easy come, easy go. But I didn’t quit. I was temporarily without money but I still had a sonnet or two up my sleeve. After the race I returned to my hotel (I didn’t say I was registered there, I said I returned to my hotel) and wrote a fourteen-line tribute to Morvich, the winning horse, and later that evening sold it to a surprised but accommodating city editor. If you will look in the Louisville Herald for Sunday, May 14, 1922, you will find my sonnet and see how a young, inexperienced man can lose a horse race but still win enough money to get out of town.” — From “The Life Triumphant,” by E.B. White
Posted by JC in Readings on 05/03/2006 @ 10:50 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
