Does this year's crop look "weak" so to speak? Relatively speaking, yeah, I would kind of agree with that. I think the "weakness" is exacerbated by a variety of things, but I also think it's still a bit early.

Between now and the next wave of preps -- a colt, on or off the radar, could turn the corner and step up. They all mature differently and nobody is going to get their colt to peak sooner than the Derby (at least not on purpose).

Once again, Zito is looking strong. There is a lot of depth in that barn. He certainly knows how to get horses to the big dance and he does it with a lot less firepower than most of the other big names (Pletcher, Baffert, etc.).

Anyway, I guess we will soon see how weak this crop really is.

Eric

I'm going to hold off on ripping the FOY because I'm suspicious of the teletimer at GP. That 25 and change opening Q looks very suspicious.

Very well said Hooves. These are very young animals who are growing and maturing every day. I just went through each derby starting in 1988 and it's amazing to see the different trends. There were years where the derby hype did not live up to how the derby was run (Ex. 1992 - Arazi) and vica-versca (War Emblem - 2002 Overlooked and nearly goes on the win the Triple Crown) During that time span we had a less than full starting gate(Ex. 1997
Silver Charm - 13 starters) Now granted, the number of starters does not determine how good or bad a year is. In general, I think I've seen leaner years than this. Let's just sit back and enjoy the remaining prep races and see what happens.

Rough going back to work today with a week off and all that :D

Exactly the opposite. The ones I picked have run to my expectations. I said after the BC that War Pass was light years ahead of this group and I didn't see anything yesterday to change my mind. After watching him win in Northern California, I was on the El Gato Malo wagon and he came down south and crushed. Indian Blessing is 2-2 this year. The rest of the 3yo's, I've felt like they were bad and other than Pyro showing me a little more than I expected, they've all run bad.

I also thought last year's group was weak after you go past Curlin. I think people make the mistake of seeing consistent averageness (so what if that's not a word) and thinking it's better than it actually is. Hard Spun was a nice horse, no doubt. But if you look back over the past 20 years, he probably wouldn't rank in the top 50 3yo's. Street Sense might make the top 20. Maybe. Any Given Saturday wouldn't crack the top 50 either. Tiago and Grasshopper wouldn't crack the top 100. Don't mistake competitive racing with good racing. The upcoming SA Hcp could turn out to be the most competitive race in history. All 14 come finish within two lengths of each other and there could be a triple dead-heat for the win. But that doesn't mean that the quality of the horses running is in line with what the past history of that race has produced. There is a difference.

How can one put Curlin decidedly ahead of Street Sense? Street Sense beat him fair and square in the Derby and Curlin beat him by about 1 inch in the Preakness. So Curlin whipped him in the Breeder's Cup over the Monmouth ocean. I don't think one can draw too many conclusions about that race other than Curlin likes slop much better than Street Sense, who didn't seem to like slop when he ran in the Arl-Wash Futurity.

3 yr crop
 

Difference in opinion makes horseracing fun to talk about, however i'm
more sucessful in average races, and bet modest on the 3 yr old derby
trail races.

I'm average in successful races.

I really dont understand some of these posts??? Ive read through alot and all I see is people saying the crop sucks. In february? I bet there are some horses out there (at least 5 or 6 ) that havent even run a race yet that will make it to the derby. Few years ago I had no idea who Barbaro was until he won the derby. Then there was Bernardini after that. Theres always a huge scramble to get the graded money under these horses belts early to get to the Derby, most horses arent ready. Then the big guns start to emerge. With Pyro and War Pass heading the trail I see an exciting campaign to the derby this year.

While I find the supposed disgust of some people an exageration, other than the very exciting War Pass, there have not been any particularly fast races from this crop, and while there is certainly plenty of time and room for improvement, right now there doesn't appear to be an enormous amount of high end talent out there. And, if you hadn't heard of Barbaro until he won the Derby, I think it's fair to say that those offering opinions here are following things a LOT closer than you.....whether one agrees with them or not.

Wait till you hear about Curlin.

Of course ive heard of Barbaro before the race but not in the context of "super Horse" as everyone decided to put him in after the derby. Also its not far fetched to think that there is a couple of horses out there in the next few weeks that will break their maidens and go on to a couple stakes races and earn enough graded stkes money to get in.

Curlin is waaaay ahead of Street Sense. If you are a Street Sense guy, you should be concerned if Hard Spun is ahead of Steet Sense too.

Hard Spun only very slightly less impressive than Street Sense in the Derby.
Hard Spun not as impressive as Street Sense in the Preakness, thanks Mario.
Hard Spun's 4th in the Belmont more impressive than Street Sense watching, thanks Go-Go.
Hard Spun's 2nd in the Haskell, after carving out 110 3/5 off of a 2 month layoff, beating Curlin in the process, more impressive than Street Sense beating CP West in the Jim Dandy.
Hard Spun and Steet Sense both impressive on Travers Day in their own respect.
Hard Spun only very slightly more impressive than Steet Sense in the Kentucky Cup Classic.
Hard Spun more impressive on Breeders Cup Day.

While I am an admitted Hard Spun fan, I find his 3YO road to be every bit as accomplished as Street Sense.

Actually, that is beyond far fetched. It's borderline ludicrous.

is that that dubai horse?

You'll find out about him later. Just remember you heard it here first.