Folks should really begin Paying attention to Kerry Thomas - has now nailed last 2 Derbys + Breeders Cup. Although he said there were 8 horses this year with a high herd dynamic (as opposed to 2 last year) he clearly stated 3 were a notch above the others; Union Rags, I\'ll Have Another, and Went the Day Well. One of the \"others\" was Dullahan and while Bodemeister was slightly outside the 8 he had a very high opinion of him, stating that he is like no horse he\'s ever seen in that his comfort zone is alone instead of around other horses.
While speed figures (and TG\'s are above any others) are and always will be necessary to form an opinion in this game, the dynamic of a horse\'s personality and it\'s relation to others in a \"herd\" (or race, isn\'t that a small herd running around a track) to me is amazing - and makes perfect sense. If we took 50 of the best thorobreds somewhere and turned them loose, eventually they\'d form a herd and start displaying the characteristics Mr Thomas seems to be keenly aware of.
I missed the boat with him last year, only put Animal Kingdom in some Pic 4\'s and tri\'s, all dead tickets. During Breeders Cup I was deployed to a resort in the desert and a little busy, didn\'t even know he had picked Drosselmeyer until I read a posting on here a couple weeks ago. This year he helped me to my best Derby score ever. Hopefully I\'ll run into him somewhere in the future and buy him a beer or 30.