Except for the fact he was never, ever going to win the Belmont.

I agree. But the thing is, Hard Spun and Curlin will probably skip the Preakness, no? That will leave SS to beat a less-than-stellar and much smaller group...so he'll maybe get leg 2. But leg 3 without as much racing luck? Nope...

Well, if Afleet Alex had fallen in the Preakness, he wouldn't have been back for the Belmont

Giacomo had the lead, and was in hand, after 10 furlongs in the Belmont---it was really the only time in his career when he let off the bit in the stretch, and horses passed him....something seemed amiss, and after surgery, he wouldn't run for another nine months.

Had he won the Preakness via tragedy, everyone would have said that the "racing Gods" stopped him at the 1/4 pole in the Belmont...as he would have been horrendously unworthy.

Why would they skip the Preakness....both would appear to have a better shot at beating him going 9.5 furlongs at Pimlico.

If they both skip the Preakness---Chelokee will be the second choice in the betting---and that would be a very sad day for racing.

You are overlooking the most obvious, and best challenger, outside of Hard Spun. That would be Any Given Saturday, who had no chance whatsoever yesterday.

Dunno if he got warm per se but Calvin got a wet sponge and gave him a sqeeze all over his head and flank to which Street Sense sorta went 'hey thanks man that feels good' in horse speak. I didn't see sweat dripping off him on the tv but who knows. He seemed fine and Calvin was taking care of his boy's comfort quite joyfully. The flowers did get on him...it's just that the winner's circle stuff moved pretty quickly, probably because they want to take care of the horse and also because Tafel's 83 years old and would probably like to sit down.

I had a strong feeling none of the Pletcher five would run in the Preakness...and a following quote I just saw seems to have confirmed it.

"Right now, I'd have to say that none of these five would go to the Preakness. We've been training King of the Roxy (Littleexpectations) for that race and he's our horse for it."

I guess the Preakness isn't very important to him.

I know his two Derby 2nd place finishers (Invisible Ink and Bluegrass Cat) passed on it....as did Flower Alley, who ran a sneaky good race in the Derby...and who I was leaning to betting on in the Preakness after watching film of the Derby,

I still have only seen the Derby replay via NBC's feed....I have no idea what happened, trip-wise, to many of the horses.

I'd like to see an iso replay of what happened with Curlin and AGS especially. They both appeared to find themselves in a difficult spot at key points in the race....but they were so soundly beaten, the latter especially.

Larry Jones said last night that they'll go to Pimlico.

I agree AGS is a bit of a stretch, but he had so little chance and such a tough trip, there was little point in even trying late. He ran as well as Curlin in my opinion. If you reverse post positions with Hard Spun, they may very well finish in reverse positions.

And IMO that's an excellent decision......and no doubt about it a good thing for the sport.

It's a weak group. Maybe he'll be another Seattle Slew and win it in a weak year.

I would look at a rested well bred horse beating him in the Belmont. For SS to run back in 2 weeks and then again in 3 weeks after the way he's been babied . . . lots of questions. Maybe Tiago?

You know...Why do you always have something to say? I was congratulating Hoffy. He picks for a newspaper. He's very proud of himself.
I hit the SUBMIT button twice by accident. Now...if you have a beef with that then my apologies. I certainly didn't mean to bore anyone. When a public handicapper nails the exacta in the Kentucky Derby it's an accomplishment. Now you need to get over this little rise in your drawers you are getting from nitpicking everything Me, hoffy, and Estreet say.

That's kind of the whole purpose of these message board thingy's....when you're not reading anyway.

HUH??? Not getting what you are saying....but Dahoss has been nothing but a smart mouth since I joined.

HS ran a tremendous race yesterday, maybe one of the best losing Derby efforts since Congaree. It was really impressive and I was dead wrong about him, I used him on the bottom of a small saver exacta, but I totally threw him out for all other purposes.

I think he's gutted, he didn't have a work for 19 days after the Lanes End and had a six week break before the Derby. I would say that was a bigger effort yesterday and he's only going to be coming back after 2 weeks. I think he will take alot of money in the Preakness and I don't see him as having much of a chance.

I think I'll wait to see how he comes out of this. It makes me very happy to see a gritty colt like this one running, though. I'm very happy for his connections... he had a great run.

We were pretty close to seeing another PA bred win too! LOL

Unless there was something brewing with him like a cough or virus that we didn't hear about, I can't understand why he didn't work for 19 days after the Lanes End, if he was that tired after that race, what's going to happen to him after the Derby?

I've got to think that Larry Jones will do what's right by the horse. If he comes out of the race bad, I'm going to assume he'll shelf him (like he did after the Lane's End.) I'm not connected with the colt, so I don't know if he had any ailments or not. Who knows?