Kentucky Derby

Congratulations Justify & Mike Smith

http://time.com/5307187/justify-triple-crown-belmont-stakes/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/sports/belmont-stakes-justify.html

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https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/bob-baffert-horse-restoring-hope-accused-of-blocking-for-justify-to-seal-triple-crown-at-belmont/

Hilarious!

 

Sour grapes coming from jockey John Velasquez and owner Mike Repole, both of whom know that what happened along the backstretch is perfectly legal in horse racing, and is just as likely to happen in a claiming race on a Wednesday night at the Fairgrounds! That's why they used to have coupled entries from the same stable so people could know that those tactics may be in play.

More to the point, what was jockey Luis Saez on Bravazo doing down on the rail? Any rider worth their salt knows that that's an obvious lock-in position! Thats exactly how Steve Cauthen won the Triple Crown on Affirmed, he left just not enough room at the rail to allow Jorge Velasquez on Alydar to try to get through with risking being locked-in, causing the latter to have to take back and go around, spending what he had left in the tank. They call that race-riding.

The real story here is Mike Smith's brilliance as a jockey sending Justify out of the gate in perhaps the best start seen in a Belmont, controlling the pace by slowing it down to his advantage (2nd quarter was considerably slower than the first) and then waiting & waiting before asking Justify to drop a gear @ the eight pole to see off any challengers, copy-book race riding, wow. That race, his Breeders Cup win on Skipaway in '96, and Derby on Giacomo in '05, show Mike is simply one of the best jockeys in the world, if not the best.

Bottom line, turning for home, every horse in that race had a good chance, and we saw what happened.

 

He's big, he's beautiful, he's bad. I mean he's good, really good! His nickname is WOW monikered after his real name War of Will. The way he won the Risen Star was breathtaking.

Just 6 weeks before the Run for the Roses!

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Anyone catch the 2 legs of the Rebel Stakes this past weekend? Holy Smokes, take me back to horse-racing rivalries of the 70s, the nose victory of Omaha Beach over the undefeated Game Winner had to be seen to be believed, and Long Range Toddy catching Improbable just before the wire was electric.

I cannot wait for this year's Derby

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Most people in the infield never actually see the race!

 

It's a little bit more than a 2-minute race and a bunch of people in the infield having a good time!

Many who attend the Derby view it as perhaps the oldest major sporting event in America having started in 1875, so they take a historical perspective about it being a very special tradition, and they do care about the sport because they have knowledge of past great champion horses & riders etc.

In fact, the Derby lasts all week in a series of day & night events at the end of which, "the Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" happens.

To understand it better, in 1956 John Steinbeck famously said "The Kentucky Derby, whatever it is - a race, an emotion, a turbulence, an explosion - is one of the most beautiful and violent and satisfying things I have ever experienced".

Not to be outdone, famed writer Irvin S. Cobb quipped “Until you go to the Kentucky Derby and with your own eyes behold the Derby, you ain’t never been nowhere and you ain’t never seen nothing.”

We have been and it's all true, when the world's best horses step on the track for the Derby and 165,000 people spontaneously burst into the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home", the grandstands reverberate all the way up to the famed 144-year-old Twin Spires, and you get a special feeling of being in the presence of greatness. This is the big dance that the sporting world waits for all year, the one for all the marbles, the one that Kings & Queens from all over the world have tried in vain to win for 144 years. Then the horses go into the gate and there is a deathly hush of anticipation, the calm before the storm, after what seems like an eternity the gates open and what follows is a deafening roar like you have never heard before that lasts for a full two minutes getting louder as they get closer to the wire.

It feels totally different from watching it on TV.

I was fortunate to witness the Derby in person in 2012 when it was actually won by our local California resident & erstwhile Ferrari Enzo owner Paul Reddam, and, I had the pleasure of personally congratulating him just a few minutes later, a weekend I shall never forget in my life!

If you ever go, my recommendation is to stay at the Galt House where all the action is, go to the historic & trendy Jack Frys for lunch or dinner the day before and you’ll dine where F. Scott Fitzgerald and Al Capone did, have breakfast the morning of the race at the equally historic track-kitchen Wagners amongst previous Derby-winners and horsemen, you might find yourself sitting next to Bob Baffert and maybe he can tell you who’ll win.

The Derby experience done right is very different from the Indy 500, and in any case, I'd rather not wait 2 hrs & 45 mins to see who wins a race!

 

Don't know about the Preakness, I like motor racing too, but I will say that 2 minutes @ the Derby seemed like an eternity even after the buildup of a long week.

 

Roadster for the win if he stays healthy and Mike doesn't leave him too far back

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I think so, I'll tell you after the Arkansas Derby.

Roadster is an amazing horse.

But so too is Tacitus (below).

Either way perhaps a grey will win this year for the first time in 14 years and only the 9th time ever!

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We'll know the answer to that question immediately after they cross the wire in the Preakness.

 

Yes.

 

I lost my rider, Big Money Mike chose Omaha Beach https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Report_Mike_Smith_makes_Kentucky_Derby_2019_decision_123