Baffert is winning a lot of early prep races. The points he earns are not redistributed to the rest of the field. Will be interesting if he keeps winning them , one if they do not allow him to run, how many points will be the cutoff for making the field, and two how many points will his runners earn and not be in the starting gate the first Saturday in May. What are the odds he files a suit arguing that his horses should run because of the amount of points earned prove that they belong, and in not allowing the horses to run, the harm is irreversible and let them run? Should get interesting.
Cant he run his derby horses under another trainers name?
Yes, but any points earned under Baffert still won\'t count. I think.
IMO the bulk of the Kentucky Derby field will be determined by the eight (8) major preps. Those are all scheduled in the say 45 days preceding the 1st Saturday in May.
So switching trainers to a proxy trainer for two races (a major prep & the Derby) seems easy enough. Servis probably won\'t be in jail yet. Or the gal who trained Runhappy, oh she might be in jail? The major preps pay 100-40-20-10 so win one and you\'re in.
Again I\'m curious about which intrepid trainers will be shipping prospects to Meydan for the UAE Derby. O\'Neil went last year, I believe. So a repeat is not unreasonable. They are, I suppose, the easiest points to capture.
Curiously, the Jack Ruby Stakes (Is he the guy who shot Oswald) has been elevated to major prep. The 50 points from the Tampa Derby and the Sunland Derby will surely attract some curious prospects and make those events interesting. I\'m wondering how those two surfaces compare to Churchill Downs.
To date I\'m not impressed with the accomplishments of KD participants traveling from FL or NM to CD, with the exception of Mine That Bird, and come on that was an anomaly.
You heard it here first, I predict a Baffert trainee via a surrogate to win in New Mexico. Back in KY, no Japanese entry this year\'s Derby? C\'est Domage or is there an automatic spot?. No Euro? No Aussies, No Asians. Just the Baffert\'s, Assmussen\'s, Pletcher\'s, and Brown\'s, with outliers any one of which may have a horse who could run its race of a lifetime to key a big vertical payoff.
But back to the Real World and the Baffert System (Book to Come) produces another Kentucky Derby Winner a Canadien bred I suspect via the Bluegrass. Or a British Luxury Car might be more appropriate.
The Baffert System Participants --> (https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Baffert_horses_might_yet_have_value_in_2022_Kentucky_Derby_123)
By rough count, Baffert has 17 TC nominees this year. Maybe Bob accepts the CD ban and thumbs his nose by winning the Preakness and/or Belmont. To my knowledge, he\'s not banned from running horses in those races.
TC nominee PP\'s: https://bit.ly/3Gy2kqj
He would have the top 3 in points, Corniche, Newgrange and Messier.
The lack of Baffert horses in the Derby futures makes the pool totally unbettable. If these horses are performing well by March, the owners are going to take them away from Baffert & run them in the final Derby preps under another trainer. I can\'t see an owner of a potential Derby winner being loyal to Baffert if it means their horse can\'t run.
You can see what\'s wrong with the world today by reading the comments in the article where two clowns have nothing better to do than get into an argument over how to abbreviate Churchill Downs.
That\'s rich. I hadn\'t noticed that commentary in my first read.
Seems that we can get 5/2 on all other 3 y/o\'s i.e. Baffert in the future pool. That may be reasonable??