Last night it was looking like Adriano might be searching for a new rider. Prado took a bad spill at Keeneland and was taken to the hospital in the ambulance. But it appears he is OK and was released:
And for the Big Brown fans, here’s the transcript from the latest NTRA teleconference with trainer Rick Dutrow:
http://www.ieah.com/cgi-bin/news_article.cgi?news_id=1001737
Some excerpts:
Mike Penna: My question is about the Florida Derby, the big storyline or one of the big storylines going into that race was Big Brown having to overcome that terrible outside post and he certainly answered that question. You were very confident he would do it that day. Is there any post position in the Kentucky Derby that he could get that would cause you a major concern?
Rick Dutrow: You know what, I was just thinking about it and it just came to me, I mean, things are going so well for our stable. I cannot imagine a post position is going to give us beat in the derby. It doesn’t matter what kind of post he gets. I mean, when his mane is pulled, naturally we’re going to try to do the smartest thing that we can. But I just can’t imagine that he’s going to get beat by a post position.
Dan Johnson: Yes. The second part of the question I asked before, and that was the main thing I as trying to ask, was, is three races – is inexperience do you think, is that any sort of a handicap for him going into the derby?
Rick Dutrow: I think that if Big Brown breaks like he always has, I think you’re most likely going to see about the same thing that you’ve seen from him, is, he places himself right in the game. And if some horses want the lead, I’m sure he’s not going to mind. If he was to break really bad and get a lot of dirt in his face and happen to face those kind of obstacles, then I would believe that maybe with the more seasoning, that would help him. But the way that Brown runs, when he – he just goes out there and puts himself right in the game and just does what he has to when he has to. I think that you’re looking at something here where talent will make up for the experience.
I think it’s safe to say Dutrow is feeling extremely confident. 
[QUOTE=Texarkana;3166241]
Last night it was looking like Adriano might be searching for a new rider. Prado took a bad spill at Keeneland and was taken to the hospital in the ambulance. But it appears he is OK and was released[/QUOTE]
Amazing he is just fine! I was watching that live on TVG and it was somewhat ugly. By all accounts it looked like he was stepped on not once but twice from the video replay. So I was expecting a Gary Stevens on Storming Home from the 2003 Arlington Million type of injury. Prado was rather lucky 
The Downey Profile (not to be confused with the fabric softener) has an assortment of odds and end with birth dates and places of birth with possible starters. Interesting enough although a bit messy in its presentation (IMHO) and I’ve never found his selection advice terribly rewarding.
Keeneland has made available video workouts for Tagg’s runners:
the filly ‘Eight Belles’
It does look like Eight Belles will be entered into the Oaks and Derby for certain.
Make no mistake, though. Given the choice, Porter wants Eight Belles in the Derby. He spent $6,000 last month to make Eight Belles a late nominee to the Triple Crown. Like Hard Spun, Eight Belles is trained by Larry Jones.
“Here’s the exact plan,” Porter said Wednesday from Florida, one of the four states where his family has auto dealerships. “If she’s training well, she will enter the Oaks and enter the Derby. I’ve made it clear to Larry that I don’t have to run in the Derby. I don’t have Derby Fever. But I do think she belongs in the Derby. The only thing that would keep me from running is a real bad post. She’s not a real good breaker.”
I’d be curious to know which position Larry wants to see Eight Belles get in order to give a go-ahead for the Derby. If she breaks poorly you don’t want to get swallowed up so closer to the rail isn’t good.
Scratch Salute the Sarge? Maybe - maybe not
Eric Guillot, on Wednesday said Salute the Sarge would “probably not” run in the Derby. In addition, Salute the Sarge has returned to California after racing at Keeneland last Saturday, making a return trip to Kentucky unlikely and inconvenient.
OK, I gotta say that this typo in Dutrow’s comments stopped me cold for a few minutes :lol: :
“I cannot imagine a post position is going to give us beat in the derby. It doesn’t matter what kind of post he gets. I mean, when his mane is pulled, naturally we’re going to try to do the smartest thing that we can.”
And there’s Beezer, thinking … “Huh? How can pulling his mane have any affect on his Derby performance, unless it’s like they have to tranq him so they have to be sure they do it enough time out…” And then it dawned. :winkgrin:
I am hopeful that Big Brown is all that. But I am slowly being won over by the California king, Colonel John. But man … what are the odds that not one but two fillies can make cases for being in the field? Not since the glory days of D. Wayne, I think.
[QUOTE=Beezer;3166888]
I am hopeful that Big Brown is all that. But I am slowly being won over by the California king, Colonel John. But man … what are the odds that not one but two fillies can make cases for being in the field? Not since the glory days of D. Wayne, I think.[/QUOTE]
As best said in this blog: A Fine Line Between Confidence and Arrogance regarding Rick Dutrow Jr. and his quote below on Big Brown:
“There’s such good karma going around the stable now that I don’t see how he can get beat.”
Me thinks he’s tempting the gods with that kind of talk.
Oh Man! I think Dutrow just blew it. Time to start searching for a new favorite.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. So unprofessional. Not even Louis Feustel ever went on the record like that for Man o’ War and, God knows, he had a better excuse.
Which would make him a better bet for the Belmont. Besides, even if it was on synthetic, 9f in 1:50.2 in the Lane’s End doesn’t strike me as the ideal KD prospect. Not unless he turns in the traditional Bold-Ruler-line once-in-a-lifetime freak performance.
There was a quote from Zito somewhere the other day saying there’s a few KD horses he’s seen at Churchill that he might handle differently if they were horses in his stable. (let me see if I can find it the citation)
I’m kind of surprised he would even make that kind of quote to the press. But I am very curious about who those particular horses might be. :yes:
Maybe he’s just trying to psyche out the competition knowing he now has two underdogs instead of a barn full of favorites.
ETA: Found it!
http://www.thedowneyprofile.com/Daily_Derby_Updates#ANAKNAKAL
“I am not training anybody else’s horses, but I have seen a few that are running in the Derby and if I had those, maybe I would do it differently. Obviously I have a sixth sense for some reason, and God’s been good to me, and I have to do what I am told to do. I go by feel.”
It made me chuckle a little. But Zito’s a good guy.
Is he serious???
http://www.drf.com/news/article/93948.html
Dutrow said he was so amped up after watching Big Brown work that “I’ve got to get this anxiety out of me.”
How so?
“I think I’ll jump out of a plane today,” he said via telephone from Florida. “I’m going tandem jumping.”
Wow, someone has a major invincibility complex right now… :lol:
Just a side note, Big Brown is Dutrow’s first derby starter.
An interesting list from the Louisville Courier-Journal:
Courier-Journal 4-27-08 “Why they can win and why they can’t”
Example:
Big Brown
Why: He’s the fastest horse in the field. He already has bucked history by being the first horse to win the Florida Derby in his third lifetime start. Things are falling into place, starting with the injury of another top speed horse, War Pass.
Why not: The Florida Derby isn’t the Kentucky Derby, which no horse has won in his fourth start since 1915. The firm Churchill surface will make him feel those old quarter cracks in his feet. He hasn’t faced this caliber of competition.
Eight Belles
Why: The massive filly is consistent, bred to go long and has a prime stalking style. This isn’t a great bunch of colts.
Why not: As with stablemate Proud Spell, no filly has won the Derby without previously racing against colts. No horse has won without racing 11/8 miles since Middleground in 1950. These colts aren’t that bad.
The Lexington Herald-Leader over the weekend had an article on Larry Jones and “depriving” others of a gate in the Derby with Eight Belles. Not that Larry and Rick Porter (owner of Eight Belles) weren’t without sympathy but there was rightfully a bit of the “then they should’ve earned more money” response to boo-hoo of males on the bubble. The more you think about it there is a valid point to it. Jones didn’t make up the rules and just is running a business in between a sport.
I was away when this quip came through from Big Brown’s trainer Rick Dutrow (4-25):
[b]
“Until somebody shows me the beast, this is not a tough horse race,” Dutrow said in a typical recent interview. "I’m training this horse for a horse race; I don’t care what the name of it is. I feel he’s the best horse in the race - I feel he’s going to win the race. Anything else is going to be extremely disappointing to me.
“I know there’s no one going into this race as good as he is right now. If he breaks clean, it’s a mismatch to me on paper.”
[/b]
Now Bud Delp was confident and loud but came into the Derby with Spectacular Bid winning 10 races in a row - 6 being Grade 1s, 2 being Grade 2s, and 1 Grade 3.
Eight Belles did work out well so she is a go for the Kentucky Derby draw.
As to the question I asked with a “good position” and thus going ahead with her in the Derby, owner auto dealer millionaire, Rick Porter, said::
Asked what would constitute a bad outside post, Porter said last week: “I was afraid to ask [Jones]. I don’t know, and I’m not going to ask him, because when we get it, I’m just going to see what he thinks - 15 to 20 wouldn’t be good.”
Glimmer, when I saw you posted, I thought it was going to be this:
Behindatthebar out; Denis of Cork in
Behindatthebar, the Lexington Stakes winner, will not run in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby and instead will point for the Preakness on May 17, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
Behindatthebar’s defection will enable Denis of Cork to make it into the Derby field.
I haven’t been a huge Denis of Cork fan to date, but I’m very happy he’s going to make the field. I’ve been hearing very good things about how he has been training at Churchill Downs.
I’ve had so many internet connection problem with getting on this site that I didn’t get to circle back around to post that about Denis of Cork
AP Photo: Big Brown being unloaded at Churchill Downs today
Just down the way from Big Brown is: Curlin located in Barn 37 at Churchill (Photo AP)
Other photos:
AP 4-28 “Tomcito with Manfreddy Guzman up” training at Churchill
AP 4-28 “Tomcito with Manfreddy Guzman up” training at Churchill
Interestingly is that Tomcito has his own official saddle cloth with his name and the Yum!/Kentucy Derby logo. So do they (CDI) make them up and give them to any horse potentially going to start in the Derby and stabled at Churchill?
Here is an interesting one, more for the caption 
Reuters Photo of Big Truck - the caption:
Kentucky Derby hopeful Big Truck with exercise rider Kristen Troxell gallops on the track during early morning workouts at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, April 28, 2008. Trainer Bob Baffert is preparing his horse for the 134nd running of the Kentucky Derby to be held May 3.
Really Big Truck and Bob Baffert? Looks like Bob has his Debry horse after all
Aww…Brown in Town
Glimmer, I don’t know about the saddle cloth, but thanks for posting these:
…photos which will come in very handy in demonstrating that racehorses do, in fact, sometimes carry weight directly on their backs. (I wish I had them for the riding OTTBs bareback discussion on Off Course a while back.)
[QUOTE=Texarkana;3174458]
Glimmer, when I saw you posted, I thought it was going to be this:
Behindatthebar out; Denis of Cork in
I haven’t been a huge Denis of Cork fan to date, but I’m very happy he’s going to make the field. I’ve been hearing very good things about how he has been training at Churchill Downs.[/QUOTE]
Calvin’s mom-in-law told me tonight that he had a good workout today with Denis of Cork. Here’s hoping Calvin makes it 2 in a row!
Tomcito’s exercise rider has balls of steel… literally and figuratively.
[QUOTE=Lori T;3174973]
Calvin’s mom-in-law told me tonight that he had a good workout today with Denis of Cork. Here’s hoping Calvin makes it 2 in a row![/QUOTE]
His work was one of the most visually impressive of the day, that’s for sure!
From NY Newsday - confirming what we knew about Big Brown’s name:
[b]
Big Brown is named for UPS, a client of Pompa’s trucking company, and on Derby Day, Desormeaux will wear a UPS logo on his pants.
[/b]
More of the same with Tuesday’s edition of the New York Times on Eight Belles: “Filly Is Ready to Take on the Colts, but Will She?”
“We just think it is one of those years where it might pay a filly to take a shot,” the trainer Larry Jones said. “This isn’t like last year where you had three excellent colts — Street Sense, Curlin and Hard Spun — that you had to beat. There doesn’t appear to be any standouts in this group, so this might be the time to go. I’m not saying they’re not a good bunch of colts; it’s just that none of them yet has shown that they’re really exceptional.”
From Monday’s Lexington Herald-Leader on Eight Belles:
“My wife (Cindy) talks with her,” Jones said. “She says, ‘Anything a man can do, a woman can do better.’”
Eight Belles must be taking the advice to heart. She turned in a 5-furlong workout in :58.20 on Sunday. “I had to run her down with a pony to get her to stop,” Jones said.
Winning Colors was the last filly to win the Kentucky Derby two decades ago.
“Winning Colors was a big filly,” Jones said. “Eight Belles is not as large, but she is close. She is definitely bigger than Genuine Risk (the 1980 Derby-winning filly). She’s as large as Hard Spun.”
And regarding the absense of one well known trainer, no not D. Wayne Lukas although he’ll be absent again too: LA Times 4-28 “Baffert won’t have a horse in Kentucky Derby”
What if they held a Kentucky Derby and Bob Baffert didn’t come? Does that mean it’s not an official race? Do they reduce the prize money?
Many sports have signature figures. Jerry West is the NBA logo. Golf is Tiger Woods, 24/7. Baseball is a syringe.
Horse racing’s signature is a head of shocking white hair and a pair of Hollywood sunglasses. They both belong to Bob Baffert.
Since Baffert stormed onto the national thoroughbred scene in the mid-1990s, accompanying the large group of highly successful horses he trained and showing a quick wit and an eye for fun, the sport has never been quite the same. The bluebloods and stuffed shirts may not have liked him, but for a while, they sure couldn’t beat him.
But after years of feast, there is now semi-famine for Baffert.
On Saturday at Churchill Downs, they will run for the roses without Baffert being anywhere nearby. That will mark the first time that has happened since 1996.
“Not sure where I’ll watch from,” he says. “Probably at home. Maybe we’ll go to Vegas. That has always sounded like fun.”
He really doesn’t have a choice. His stable currently has no horse either ready or able, not even for a run in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks or on the undercard on Derby Day.
“It’s kind of an empty feeling,” Baffert says.
article continues with more suggestions of Bob moving his focus mostly to the East
