Racetrack Lenny

Derby Prep Races

A weekend that featured the Florida Derby, the Santa Anita Oaks, The San Felipe Stakes & the Tampa Bay Derby created a lot more questions that it answered. For those that relish betting favorites and keying everything around them, that home equity loan is starting to look pretty good by now.

Contenders Halfbridled, Action This Day, St. Averil, Read the Footnotes, Tapit and The Cliff's Edge all went down to defeat. Halfbridled finished 2nd and looked pretty flat in doing so. The positive is that her losing time was better than some of the other winners! Action This Day was a badly beaten 7th in the San Felipe and was never in the race--maybe Action another day. The long awaited debut of St. Averil came in the San Felipe where he lost by a nose hair. If this horse is Derby bound, Terrill Baze has to go. Preachinatthebar won the San Felipe in very gutsy fashion and has re-established himself as a contender.

As predicted by me (I am tapping myself on the back) Read The Footnotes bounced all the way to the Moon. That tough, tough race in the Fountain of Youth took out a lot more starch out of him than thought. He ran a very flat 4th at even money (ouch). Look for him to possibly come back stronger in the Wood Memorial.

Tapit was a well beaten 6th in the Florida Derby. I guess those one mile workouts took a bit out of him. Friend's Lake was the winner of the Fla. Derby at 38-1 odds and puts himself in the Derby picture. Go figure. Finally, the Cliff's Edge was third and while not bad, it sure didn't look like an impressive 3rd.

I've gone 4 paragraphs without mentioning our sentimental Derby choice- Minister Eric. That's because I'm absolutely baffled at why his connections entered him in a 6-1/2 Furlong OPTIONAL CLAIMING race. That's right- a CLAIMING race!! Obviously, his connections aren't thinking Derby---and they ran him on the turf--and he finished a lackluster 3rd. Luckily (or maybe unluckily) he was not claimed. The 3rd Derby futures book came out today and Minister Eric has dropped to 52-1. I have $30 on him at 38-1 and another $30 at 34-1. I took a pass on today's odds. A horse that finishes 2nd in the Breeder's Cup obviously has some talent; so, what do the owners/trainers know that we don't?? Maybe Minister Eric will Preachatthebar and tell me himself!

Oh, well, turn the page.

Catherine Detweiler went to the post at @ 9:10 PM