derby

[marcus]

davidrex , thats a good one - you must ride a \"honda\"   ... i like that free-wheelin\' approach , w/o too many  distractions etc ( why mess with success ) . noticing how few of the derby contenders bounced at 2yo that have run a better number than #2 at anytime in their career , you like ( hard spun w/ ) the forgers pattern  - any thoughts on this ...

[RICH]

Hard Spuns pattern looks good, but he has been stuck for 3-4 races in a row, that bothers me a little. Scat Daddy looks awful tough, his last two at 1 1/8 look like a good launching pad, and the spacing is ideal.

[marcus]

RICH , i personally agree and seeing mixed signs with hard spuns 1/2 pt top last time , the forgers pattern could start going OX . joe got even\'s pattern  reminds me a little bit of hard spun right now .  imo - AGS\'s pattern seems healthy enough but like hard spun , hasn\'t improved more than 2 pts in his last 4 races , maybe it\'s coming . sd & ss look similar except one got back and the other is still working on it ... i\'m uneasy about any of the derby field winning off of top efforts - even if it\'s in character with previously established form ...

[flushedstraight]

Due to his handlers, Hard Spun has not been allowed to run his race on dirt since the Lecomte score in January. His two preps since do not give me any evidence of development or lack of development.

This quote by Jones after the poly race is a bit troubling:
\"He seems to like Polytrack and Keeneland is almost like home,\" Jones said. \"We definitely want one more prep.\"

So what happened?

[spa]

The key figure for me is the mile split in 1:36. If my horse is poised to fire at this stage, I\'ll stand a great chance.

[easygoer89]

Would be nice too see TG to start adding a line on trainers stats for poly to dirt in the same fashion we have had info on turf to dirt.  Street Sense moved way up in BC while other horses regressed.

[TGJB]

We hope to have synthetic stats on the page next week. We\'ll just have \"other to turf\" and vica-versa for now.