Last night

[Tony]

Last night sitting with a guy that know Matz. Matz said he thinks this horse is going to win the triple crown

[jmetro]

So much for 5 weeks between your last prep and the Derby.  I wonder how Barbaro will bounce back with two weeks between his races instead of at least four, assuming of course he runs in the Preakness.  Relatively speaking he will the freshest horse coming out of the Derby.  

[sighthound]

It was reported (NBC?) that this Derby morning Matz took Barbaro out for a half-mile gallop for a little loosening. He hooked another horse lightly for a bit during it.

We got to see something special today.  Look at the race replay.  Just enjoy.  This horse already has the mileage base for the Belmont. The Derby and Preakness are sharpening drills.  The new paradigm.

I thought I saw a couple shorter steps in the left front leaving the circle walking back to the detention barn while on the dirt.  I hope my eyesight is bad, and it was just too crowded to walk on out.

[alm]

There will be a lot of talk about ground loss and various misfortunes suffered by different horses in KY, but you just watched a very fast grinder sit slightly wide off the pace and keep rolling like the bunny.  He won\'t get into trouble the way many of the others did because he won\'t ever be far behind, in a pack.

Matz is to be congratulated for saving something for the next two races.  Most of the horses behind him on Saturday put on more miles and stress in their preps and are likely to flatten out even more in the Preakness.  

I don\'t recall Matz saying this horse NEEDED the time between races, just that it didn\'t matter.  If he read the horse correctly he was determined to have him ready for the 5 week grind, not just the Derby.  This was not Smarty Jones who carried his hard earned peak as far as he could.  This one is getting better.

[hossgnat]

How about the undefeated TC winner Barbaro vs. undefeated Discreet Cat in the Travers?  Too good to be true.

[richiebee]

Hossgnat:

 Good, optimistic racing fan, you are.

 Unfortunately, the reality is that one or both of these will likely be retired before August gets here.

 Will repeat my opinion that (a) Discreet Cat beat less than a stellar field in the UAE Derby and (b) the best runners in that less than stellar crew were allegedly doped ie given performance negating drugs.

 That being said, DC ran a lights out race at the Spa last August. I think it may have been on the Travers undercard.

 Oh, the Derby? For the second staight year I can honestly say that by about the 1/2 mile pole I knew I had no chance of cashing.