Yesterday morning I was ready to make my 2008 blog debut with an entry describing the early Derby preps as a bunch of “meh” races with two notable exceptions. Well, after the Florida Derby yesterday afternoon there are now three notable exceptions. Kent Desormeaux rode Big Brown hard from post position 12 and made the lead on the clubhouse turn. Big Brown maintained that lead down the backstretch and into the far turn with his ears pricked. He drew off down the stretch and won by 5 lengths in a quick time of 1:48. Easy, and visually impressive.
The original notable exceptions I was going to discuss were Pyro in the Risen Star and Adriano in the Lane’s End. Pyro was last on the final turn at the Fairgrounds and appeared hopelessly behind a wall of horses well into the stretch. Suddenly, he found a hole, motored through, and opened a three length lead in less time than it took to type this sentence. For the Derby, I like a horse who has demonstrated the willingness to follow a jockey’s commands as well as the physical ability to catch up to the moving holes and run through them.
Adriano encountered no difficulties in the Lane’s End. He stalked the pace, took command going into the far turn and proceeded to use his powerful stride to just gallop the rest of the field into submission. Of course he’s a turf/fake dirt horse, and his only dirt try was abysmal, but his connections are thinking a Kentucky Derby try is worth some consideration. I’m torn myself. I’d like to see him run at Churchill Downs, but I think I’d like to see him run in the Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs even more. This could be a new turf star in the making.
The rest of the big Kentucky Derby preps will be run in the next couple of weeks. Maybe we will get a few more notable performances to discuss.
Until then I remain,
The Annoyed Handicapper
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