Alan, I'm completely opposite to you on this. I didn't think Eight Belles looked impressive in the Fantasy at all. However, the race doesn't look so bad on paper (compare it to the Rebel).Well, it wouldn't be much fun if we all agreed, would it? I think it's a fair point that it wasn't the most visually impressive race in the world. But I gave her credit for overcoming a fair amount of adversity and a negative pace scenario against a filly who might turn out to be a good one; in her only prior start for Asmussen, she won by 18.
- Anonymous writes:
Sticking with Monba, whose Hollywood Futurity was as good a race as any of the other touted CAL invaders..I was looking at Monba on Formulator; the pp's weren't available on it when I wrote about this colt, who also gets credit for a good name (Maria's Mon - Hanba). In the Cash Call, only his third career start, Monba closed in 29.13 for the last 2 1/2 furlongs - 23.27 and 5.86. So he was flying late, and you see him zipping by the winner in the gallop out. He also has a win over the Churchill track. However, if you disregard the Fountain of Youth, in which he was hurt, he's essentially trying to win the Derby on one prep, the Blue Grass. But it's a sign of the times that you don't really hear that spoken about a lot. I hesitate to make him my "Derby pick" because I'll never hear the end of it from John if I go down with the Toddster again. But I'll definitely have him on my tickets somewhere.
- Another anonymous person wrote:
And how is Dutrow allowed to bet $150,000.00 on his horse when Matties and his family were denied stalls for betting on theirs.We haven't heard a single word of about Greg Matties since the story broke on April 17. So I can't really make the comparison without knowing the facts. But that seems an excellent question.
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I'm not sure if it's been mentioned on this blog yet, but the OTB on 52nd St and 2nd Ave in Manhattan had a panel discussion about the Kentucky Derby last night. The panel was Jody MacDonald of ESPN radio, Dan Illman from DRF, Channing Hill and Gary Contessa. And I just want to say that this is something that should be done more often. It was a great atmosphere and to be able to listen to these men talk and ask them questions is great for the hard core and average fan. They discussed everything from the Oaks to Polytrack to their Derby picks. You got to hear Channing Hill talk about riding on the different tracks surfaces and Gary talk about how the sport needs to be more fan friendly etc... I never knew Gary besides the fact that it feels like he wins 2 races everyday in NY but he was the nicest guy and stayed around after to answer all the fans questions and to just talk horse racing. He said he was putting aside his personal differences with Richard Dutrow and was rooting for Big Brown because the sport needs a big story and he wants to see 110,000 people at Belmont on June 7th cheering Big Brown on to the Triple Crown. I want to thank OTB for doing something right for the fans and to the four men on the panel. It was great to feel like something was being done for the fans for once.
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