The Greatest Game of All

[Silver Charm]

No that wasn\'t me on the DRF Chat room.

I was delayed on the phone for over an hour getting advice from (Xichibanx you know him) Brooklyn Steve. He was trying to convince that Bellamy Road is the next Secretariat and you better take the 5-2 now because it won\'t be there anymore.

This may be one of the Greatest Derby\'s ever. The Great One Himself is coming (no not you Bob Baffert) Michael Jordan, Usher, ZZ TOP, Manning, Brady the list goes on. There are more big names than the Super Bowl would even dream about having.

Perfect weather (Don\'t goose this track Bitch Lehr you here now). A huge crowd.

Racing is on major uptick, otherwise why do all these people want to be there.

I fly out at 7:00AM tomorrow, I\'ll be back on Sunday. As soon as its over I\'ll probably wish it was opening day at Gulfstream so we could do this all over  again.

Good Luck everybody.

[dlf]

anyone else on continental flt 2334 Newark-L\'ville tomorrow at 6:45 a.m?

[xichibanx]

Oh yeah SC I know him.  I\'m sure I\'ll see him Friday or Saturday at CRC and he can tell me the same thing.  I\'ll be in the dining room both days at CRC.  

Good luck at CD, SC on the days you are there and have fun at the Friday night festivities.  I\'m sure I\'ll see you on the set one of the two days.

I for one have no clue who I like Saturday.  I\'ll post it Friday morning before I leave for the track after I stare at the form for a few hours or so.

xichibanx

[Mall]

I don\'t know if yours have been removed SC, but if they haven\'t, be careful how you use them this weekend. You don\'t need to use them to have a good time, or so I\'m told. The reference is to the recent removal of High Limit\'s wolf teeth, which someone was trying to explain to me this afternoon. I thought it was yet another b.s. story, especially since it came after the teller\'s explanation of how he has conducted a \"stride analysis\" of all of the contenders. That was before I read the Crist interview. In response to a question re how it would affect HL\'s performance, Crist indicated that he does not have access to any wolf teeth out r.o.i. stats.

[NoCarolinaTony]

Thanks for that post. You had me laughing real good.

NC Tony

[gvido]

Dickinson implied Tapit\'s erratic run during the Wood was because of a bad tooth. Having it pulled didn\'t help. Dental extraction ROI=0.00 ITM %= 0

[Mall]

Although I\'m not sure if it\'s 83 yr old trainer Warren Stute or the guy he punched in the mouth on the way home from the hospital after his 2nd of 3 strokes, as described in John Clay\'s Grumpy Old Horsemen article in today\'s Herald-Leader(http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky) I have it on good authority that Stute, like Sheppard, is strictly a hay, oats & water guy.

Crist makes the pt, legitimate I think, that the reason previous winners met certain criteria(no. of starts, performance level in a prep, etc) is because all or almost all of the horses in the race which had a chance met those criteria. Not so this yr, so there is a good chance the winner will not meet those criteria. So far so good, if you buy into the premise. Assuming you do, does it then make sense to try to determine the winner by applying the same handicapping factors which were used when all of the horses met the old criteria?

[bloodline bob]

I think yes it does makes sense and i think Crist is wrong.  Its a 20 horse field and we all are searching for angles. I like the idea of tossing Ban, BR, HL,GG, NC,FA, and CS for being too unseasoned or 2 few preps.  The conditions of the race hasn\'t changed. Most horses don\'t want to go this far this early and with a big field and fast pace it often falls apart when they all pile into the quarter pole. So you want a seasoned closer who can get the trip.  It doesn\'t work every year but no angle does. BR might be the 2nd coming of Hindoo but to take 3/1 on him in the face of the history of this race doesnt maje sense to me.  Another angle against him is the fact he hasn\'t had a hard race, arguably ever.  you don\'t get ready for a race likr the derby wit2 strolls in the park, however impressive. asl Point Given and Talkin Man. You got to take a stand against him IMO.