He's a pretty special horse

[covelj70]

He doesn\'t want to run that far and he\'s doing it with a bad foot and he still ran an amazing race.

Best moving horse I have ever seen

He ran to that last work.

I don\'t know how long he will be around for with those feet of his but I really love watching this horse run so I hope he sticks around a little while at least.

Pedigree matters but so does how a horse moves.

A beautiful moving horse can outrun his pedigree and a poor moving horse may not be able to go as far as the pedigree would suggest.

Thanks again to everyone for the Derby banter. Look forward to Preakness already.

[Old Mr. Boston]

Jim, he sure looks like a special horse. I hope Baffert can hold him together long enough to achieve greatness. As one who is old enough to have attended the Derby\'s of Secretariat, Slew and Affirmed, anyone who can not appreciate AP\'s accomplishment today is strictly a gambler and not a fan of our great game..Ken

[jp702006]

He does appear to be the real deal. Great job with your horse yesterday and thank you for all of your insightful posts. Any idea what happened to Upstart?

[covelj70]

Upstart galloped on his wrong lead all week after he got to Churchill.  

His performance may have something to do with that.

Hopefully it\'s something minor and he comes back as a monster as shorter distances to which I think he is suited.

[martoon]

AP a great mover but if Firing Line switches leads he probably wins.  Ran the whole way on his left lead.

[FrankD.]

Huge effort today from the outside post, a gut wrenching effort 3W 3W with a bad foot, if he drops weight like he has in the last 2 races and 3rd race in 5 weeks
he is TOAST in the Preakness at 3/5.

The draw destroyed the most talented and deep group of 3 yr olds since 1987. I\'m afraid greed 15 minutes of fame ruined a lot of this field.

Frank D.

[covelj70]

Draw hurt for sure but most of them were toast by Derby week.

Possible that points system where horses need to be cranked to run big in final preps has a higher percentage of them over the top by the time the race comes.

What I always argue about why Pletcher runs poorly in derby applies to more of the field I think now.

Can\'t baby these horses into this race anymore after earning points early. Pletcher always plays to win final preps and no meat on bone come derby time.

Mat/upstart/carpe diem/tencender/frosted,etc

Were all cranked to run big in final prep and were way over the top by derby week.

AP/firing line/Dort all had relatively easy final preps. Helped them all today.

[FrankD.]

Jim,

Congrats on Power Alert yesterday, a major league field he wrecked yesterday.

Rushed, winning final preps? Materiality had 2 starts!!! I agree they have to get here but come on. Who had an easier path here than Carpe Diem? Dortmund was out his comfort zone today having to be rushed.

Bottom line is the deepest, most talented field in years with tremendous number power ended up as a boat race, 1,2,3 all the way around the merry go round with only Frosted closing ground into trotter fractions did any running at the end.

Frank D.

[covelj70]

Thanks so much on power alert.  That was a tremendous thrill.

My point is that that of the 0 and negative fig horses coming into this race, only AP ran to his number and he ran his number very easily last time.

The horses that ran hard to run a negative figure in their final prep all backed up today.

They all trained poorly this week and ran poorly today.

Horses that were geared down but ran respectable figures in last all looked and trained great derby week and ran a big race today.

[FrankD.]

Yes my friend and the \"chalk eating weasels\" ended up saying how easy the $200 tri was that you nor I wanted any part of!!!!

[covelj70]

This was the least I bet on the derby in 10 years.

As I mentioned on Thursday, Baffert two physically looked and trained so much better than the others this week and the top fig horses all trained hurt so trying to make a big score here was tough.

Could get interesting from here though for rest of triple crown as AP was pressed to the limit today for the first time and I wouldn\'t expect him to run back to his fig in the Preakness.

Have to see how he trains though.

[FrankD.]

I used 8,18, 1st 2nd, 1st 3rd & 1st 4th with 2,5,6,14,16,19 in tri\'s and supers hoping for some underneath bombs.

Made good money yesterday and a lil today from the Oaks/Derby double, bet less than $600 total on Derby pick 4 and verticals.

Wasn\'t willing to bet a deli to win a pickle in an 18 horse field!

[rhagood]

Re: Upstart, he had 4 negative numbers lifetime going in and 3 in a row (a first?) and to win he need 5 which would have been another first. Take nothing away from the X race, if he is sound and rested with be major player later.

AP would have won easier if not let float out so wide turning for home, running against himself at that point.  Weight loss etc will be keen to watch going into Preakness.

[jp702006]

I was alive in the pick 5 to Firing Line, Upstart and Frosted. Oh well, on to the Preakness!

[jerry]

Quite a bit of drifting in and out through the stretch. No surprise he\'s lightly raced. No guarantee he even goes in Baltimore.