Two Weeks To Go

- Our wedding is two weeks from today, and things are getting pretty hectic. My laptop crash certainly hasn't helped, and I'm just not the type to make major purchase decisions without the proper due diligence. So the saga is stretching out longer than necessary. Anyway, between the big event and the honeymoon which will follow, please don't lose faith if I suddenly disappear until sometime around the baseball season opens!

I got nuthin' on the Fountain of Youth later on today. It's a fascinating, wide-open race to be sure, but I think I'll pass as far as betting on it; I can make a case for almost all of the 12 entrants. I know it's cool to cash on a horse in one of these preps, especially at a nice price. But, given the global village that betting on racing is these days, there's gotta be easier wagering opportunities throughout the nation's racetracks today. For me, finding time is amongst the most challenging aspects of handicapping, and I think I can invest it in better ways than trying to decipher that particular race. It's not like there won't be high interest in watching it without a bet. And besides, betting on the Derby preps can lead to emotional attachments that can cloud one's judgment as the Derby approaches. (How's that for an excuse?)

- Thanks to the reader who alerted me to Friday's 4th race at Fair Grounds in which Oh So Awesome, Team Valor's one-time Belmont hopeful, was entered for a $10,000 tag; the first time he had run for sale. Funny thing is that the bettors were wary enough to make him the second choice, even though he really did stand out on paper off the prodigious drop in class. He had no excuse against that field, and he got the job done, returning $5.80. And he was bravely claimed by Keith Bourgeois.

- Ferragamo won the six furlong Mountain Valley at Oaklawn in a snappy 1:09.90, and his running lines look pretty weird with his three wins sandwiched around one evil looking line from Philly Park in which he lost by 28. He beat a nice horse in Carson's Legacy. Ferragamo is trained by Larry Jones, who said we’re not going to try and get him ready for the [Kentucky ] Derby. [Arkansas Democrat Gazette] But he does want to stretch him out, and why not? He's by Vindication, out of a Conquistador Cielo mare who is a half-sister to the late Whitney/Cigar Mile winner Left Bank.