A changing of the guard, as far as sires are concerned. Only Uncle Mo has thrown a  Derby winner, and most of the other sires are 1st-3rd crops running. Tapit has never had Derby winner.

I will stay with Messier; he has the foundation, and I see a forward move here.

The draw hurts Mo, helps Messier, Crown Pride, Taiba, Simplification, and Cyberknife. One of my bombs, Tiz the Bomb, KILLED by the draw, as he hates dirt kickback. He needed an outside draw.

Messier\'s race to lose, IMHO.....12-1 Taiba/Smith??? no way! 6-1 tops!

Crown Pride will be underlayed, with all the hype on how the Japanese horses crushed in Arabia.

Simplification, 20-1....Hmmmm...

I am still picking myself up off the floor...Taiba??? Impressive performance, and a gift to all Ky Derby players, as he will take a lot of $$$, and LOSE!

Unless he is the 2nd coming of Justify, I can\'t see him winning the big one on 2 starts; Messier now becomes the value, as he did all the dirty work, has the foundation, and will be around 6-1. He can stalk the speed, and hold off Mo Donegal and Zandon...just my take!

NYRA announced the restoration of the Wilson chute at Saratoga, to allow races to be run at a mile.

Not a great idea IMHO, as in \'92 they brought it back, and it heavily favored the 1-2-3 post; nearly impossible to win from the outside. It lasted just one season.

Speaking of post bias, the 9F races there have the same issue; I have always wondered why they don\'t run more 1 3/16M races, as it is late summer, and the 2-turn horse can handle the stretch-out, and it gives you a longer run to the turn.

Thoughts??

Any clarity on the personal coolers some bring in? They were always allowed IF they fit under your seat.

As the \"gentrification\" of Saratoga continues, can someone help clarify some of the policies for me? As I now understand it, NO coolers (and I assume the small carriers that fit under your seat) are permitted in the grandstand.

Is it also true that you can\'t bring chairs into the track, even in the picnic table area? Please help me out on this, as trying to order individual daily seating today was a joke! I am planning to come up for a couple of days only this year.

Question: In last Sat. 10th race, the winner (Distorted Beauty) made a sweeping wide move from 11th and got up late. Was the ground loss here a case of \"not as bad as it appears\" and did she really not lose a lot of ground, and as a result, the win is not as good as it looks visually? On the surface, it appears this filly may have a nice future on the grass. Opinions? Thanks for the input.