Racetrack Lenny

Derby Wrap-Up

For those of you who took my pick of Smarty Jones and bet it, congratulations. I felt great that the blue collar horse won and that Stewart Elliott, who has toiled for 22 years at Philadelphia Park, finally got his due recognition. For those of you that played my exacta and trifecta picks, I'm crying in my beer too.

I think Smarty Jones made some believers today. The most "dosage" challenged horse was much, much the best. Lion Heart ran his best race ever--and it had to be today to rob us of the Smarty Jones/Imperialism exacta, which 2 minutes to post time was listed as paying $176. Lion Heart just didn't figure into my handicapping just by how he quit in the Blue Grass at a shorter distance. My conclusion after today is that Lion Heart loves mud. Imperialism got 3rd after being 17th at the top of the stretch. He was closing but it took getting out of traffic to achieve that and he shook loose too late.

The Cliff's Edge bounced higher than a pink spaulding ball. I should have known better. And as for Tapit, the trip is everything. When you watch the replay, Ramon Dominguez was right behind Borrego, a patented closer and Pro Prado, another strong closer. Ooops. Once Borrego and Pro Prado started backing up, Dominguez had no choice but to steady Tapit twice. If you're a one run closer like Tapit is, once you build momentum, you just can't start it and stop it twice. Tapit had the worst trip of all the horses in the race.

As for our sentimental choice, Minister Eric; I was starting to count my Futures Bets when Minister Eric reached 3rd and was looking like a strong contender. Then the gut check came and the tank was empty. The unorthodox turf, claiming and allowance race road to the Derby was either going to be sheer genius or gross stupidity. Now we know. Hey, at least for one brief moment, I had over a $1,000 in my pocket. Look for Minister Eric to start showing up in 7 furlong sprints.

Hope you enjoyed watching the race.

Catherine Detweiler went to the post at @ 11:43 PM