The Road to the Derby Begins Monday?

[richiebee]

For me at least.

I do not pay much attention to 3YO preps run over the Inner Dirt Course.

The Tampa Bay preps have become more important recently, with increased purses
and graded status. I can\'t take Tampa racing seriously until they replace the
race caller, who I have surmised either owns the track or has pictures of the
owners doing nasty things; the guy is that bad.

Down in N\'awlins, Freisan Fire is either a legit Derby contender or merely a FG
horse for course who will be a Derby afterthought.

The road to the Derby begins Monday because the early Derby favorite, Old
Fashioned, will make his first start as a 3YO in the Southwest Stakes at
Oaklawn.

OF hasn\'t exactly scared anyone away, as 10 3YOs will take a shot at him.
Of those 10 runners, none is a graded stakes winner. Seven of the 10 made
their last start at OP.

For the astrologists, only two of these runners have actually turned 3 at this
point-- OF and the West Point/Lukas runner, Buzzin and Dreamin.

OF is 8/5 ML, more than likely 3/5 when they open the gate. The second
favorite, and only runner with TGs close to OF, is Silver City, who has never
been past 6.5 furlongs.

Lots of interesting colts, even if most of them look slower than the top 2.
Retap(Asmussen)making his 7th start at his 7th different track. Loch Dubh
Talley) won 2 straight after trainer Talley caught Eddie Kennealy \"cheating\"
when this one was entered for Maiden 15K; Gresham (Baker) developing slowly as
one might expect from a product of Seeking the Gold and AP Indy; and Flat Out
(Dickey) and Poltergeist(Von Hemel), both of whom ran very strong races winning
over the Oaklawn 1 mile course in their last tries.

Is OF \"fully cranked\" for this race? His January 29 workout at the Fair Grounds,
where he was clocked in 58.4 breezing out of the gate,reportedly galloping out
in 1.11,is exceptionally fast for that track and tells me all I need to know.

Is OF facing the best field he has faced as of yet? Absolutely.

It\'s a rece$$ion. Betting on short priced favorites only serves to increase
rece$$ionary pressure. I\'ll take a shot with an improving Poltergeist running
to the light at odds of 10/1 or above, hoping that the two favorites,the two
expensive gray/roan sons of Unbridled\'s Song, do each other in on the front end.

[smalltimer]

richie,
reference the race caller at Tampa Bay.  If you listen closely, you\'ll realize he was the narrator on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. A voice made for television and not the P.A. system.

[shanahan]

smalltimer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> richie,
> reference the race caller at Tampa Bay.  If you
> listen closely, you\'ll realize he was the narrator
> on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. A voice
> made for television and not the P.A. system.


too funny...I can never hear him any differently now. I hope he doesn\'t do interviews post race and we hear \"wanna see me pull a rabbit out of my hat?\"

[richiebee]

Shanahan and Smalltimer:

Careful guys, lest you be accused of being unfair to Local 12--Villains,
Thieves and Scoundrels.

And who can forget Boris Badnov\'s lament: \"I give bomb to lady spy...Who gets
blown up? Me.\"

[dodie]

Don\'t know the dude\'s name, but he was the race caller at aksarben back in the day

[richiebee]

smalltimer:

Is \"a voice made for TV\" worse than \"a face made for radio\"?