JC / Railbird - Oaks Prospects

Oaks Prospects

Out and about at Churchill Downs this morning …

Stay Thirsty

Watch Me Go

Pants on Fire

Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty, working in company

Joyful Victory, with trainer Larry Jones

As measured by the speed figure makers, the Kentucky Derby field may be “solid, competitive â€¦ and slow,” but there’s a dominant figure in the Oaks.

Speaking of figures …

“Frankel’s performance can only be described as awesome,” said the official BHA handicapper for milers, apparently as awed as everyone else watching Frankel cheerfully gut the field running behind him from the start in the 2000 Guineas (replay). “He destroyed the others, not himself,” said trainer Henry Cecil. At the end what impressed almost as much as the ease with which the undefeated colt won was how hard his rivals had to run to even keep him in view. Timeform gave Frankel a provisional rating of 142, the third best ever; the Racing Post rated him 133, the highest ever on that scale.