The Ohio Derby

[Tavasco]

It\'s closing in on about a week from Thistledown\'s signature race the $500K Ohio Derby. I remained puzzled on several accounts.

1. $500K is one half of a million dollars, the mistake on the lake is apparently a must miss destination. Note - they do have some fine golf courses. The race drew an unlikely group of suspect race horses?

2. Whose dollars made Mo Tom the even money favorite? The crowd? Tom? Are there that many trip handicappers?

3. Where will Mo Tom appear next? Iowa or Indiana Derby? Saratoga? Turf? Fall Keeneland and then

4. Looks, at first glance, for me all the participants will be bet against next out. With the possible exception of Discreet Lover.

The clock? Could be that the weather that blew through prior to Saturday slowed the track so as exciting as Mo Tom\'s performance may have been to backers. I\'m still torn and don\'t know what to think about this one.

[ajkreider]

JB is convinced about the FG numbers, which I can accept.  But Tom\'s Ready, Gun Runner, and Mo Tom all ran huge once getting away from the Fairgrounds (to say nothing of Destin).

[Tavasco]

Interesting FG observation.

I had forgotten Mo Tom is a May foal. So easy to explain improvement as maturity. So we can surmise Mo Tom\'s Thistledown race was much better than another TG 4?

Adventist could logically have run another in the 3 range which would make Mo Tom\'s race very fast indeed. Or c/b Mo Tom ran say a TG 2-3 and Adventist a point or so off his top.

Maybe my math is off but the raw time seems pedestrian. Pure speculation until TG publishes the numbers. In the end I guess I will doubt a bounce next time. Trouble, well that\'s another question.