Dream Shake a beautiful 2nd. Congratulations @LaurieB !
Thank you!
No complaints about that, Dream Shake ran a great race in just his 4th start. I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Time for my annual fearless, and often wrong, picks. Still staying with EQ but theres a handful of others deservedly at short odds and more around 10-1 odds that are intriguing. In that group also staying with Medina Spirit and adding Known Agenda, both these seem solid, IMO.
For a longer shot, Midnight Bourbon, currently at 20-1. Many have given up on Mandaloun after a bad race last time out so hes all the way down to 28-1. Not sure he deserves that and I liked him early thus year. So Ill use him in a few exactas( boxed, just in case).
This is the first time any of these colts will deal with a real crowd for the post parade (which got to at least one filly who left her race there) and turning for home into a wall of noise from 50k fans might create the old deer in the headlights. It happens, just usually in races before they get this far into their career. Much can happen.
Local news here is estimating, with the stands at 50% and infield increased to 30% capacity, horses be looking at around 50k after a year of empty, peaceful grandstands. And the weather is perfect, for a change, removing that excuse.
ETA: Gamine is back. Had to work, bobbled at the start and did not seem to like the track. JV says she didnt like the crowd noise much either. Still won by 2 lengths and gaining.
Love Whitmore:heart:
The old man ran a heck of a race to come up a very short 3rd in the CD Stakes (race 10).
No lasix & giving the others 5lbs.
Wow! Dead Heat in the Turf Classic. Colonel Liam and Domestic Spending.
Just had a chance to watch the replay.
WOW!! Super race by Dream Shake after those blistering fractions in the first 1/2.
Is the track fast today?
IMO honorable mention to Smooth Like Straight who was in the lead for most of the race until overtaken by Colonel Liam and Domestic Spending but part of the stretch run Rispoli was riding about 12" further back than intended when the saddle slipped back. Would Smooth Like Straight have won… probably not but yowsa on that ride
How many times are we going to see Tom Brady in that godawful hat? He looks like a pimp.
Having nothing to do with anything… sad that NBC has to interrupt their regularly scheduled ‘programming’ to show a race
I know they gotta fill 50 minutes between every race but how many times do we have to look at ugly hats? Musta missed Brady’s hat.
I end up flipping between NBC for the actual races and TVG to see races from the other tracks they cover. Oh, and I used TVG to get the MTP for the CD races… go figure…
Loved the stretch run by the top 4 horses.
Medina Spirit really dig in at the end.
So happy for Hot Rod Charlie & his connections with his 3rd place run.
Medina Spirit wins, Bob Baffert with the most trainer Derby wins, seven times.
John Velazquez wins his fourth Derby.
Hopefully, no streamers on the rose blanket this year.
Groom covered the horse’s eye when they put the roses on.
How tall is Medina Spirit? Bob kept referring to him as a little horse,.
Even though it was Baffert again, I’m happy to see the “third tier” horse, Medina Spirit, the small $1000 yearling, get the roses. He’s been in the background behind Life Is Good and Concert Tour all year. He earned that win.
I had a feeling that Elusive Quality might have peaked too early, but with a better trip he might have gotten it done. I think we’ll see more from him this year if he stays sound.
I wanted to see more Lava Man myself. At the beginning of the post parade he was looking like he thought he was back at the track and ready to load into the starting gate. It was a good race, everybody looked like they had a fair shot. Nice to see a $1000 yearling make the big time.
Anyone hear anything about Soup & Sandwich?
He got bumped a little bit in the last turn & then faded quickly.
Looked like the jockey pulled him up before the wire, but unable to find video that shows it for sure.
The commentators said that "Mattress Mack, the Houston furniture magnate, bet something over a million dollars on EQ thus manipulating the odds. Who does that? Wonder what it’s like to lose that kind of money on a horse race.
He often bets that amount on these bigger races, along with having some big special at his stores.