But many are faster than he is....which is all that matters.

What exactly is the fascination with this horse? Is it because his connections had another ridiculously overrated horse two years ago?

I'm interested to see what excuse they will have for his lackluster performance......I'm sure they're gonna say that there is something wrong w/ him.

I'm not impressed with him at all if you really want to know. The three that I like THE MOST so far for the derby are Liquidity, Notional and Bwana Bull. I haven't tossed Scat Daddy yet, either.

Hey, I'm still holding out hope that Dynever comes out of retirement....and wins a photo.

LMAO!

Eric

To each their own concerning Scat Daddy. I'll give the colt one more start and if he doesn't show what I thought I saw last year, I'll toss him out of my derby stable. Simple as that. ;)

What exactly did you see last year?

Whatever it was it must have happened in some secret race of his I didn't see. You do know he " ran " at Gulfstream a few weeks ago...right?

I found the comment below posted on the Fox Hill Farm forum. As I understand it the person who wrote this is an assistant. My question is regarding the "struggling with the surface" comment. It looks like HS has been at Oaklawn and training well since the beginning of the year. So today he struggled with the surface?

At least it was classy in the way that they acknowledged the winner and didn't have a lot of sour grapes about the whole deal.


"Hard Spun seems to have come out of the race in good order. He was scoped and that came back fine.

It'd be nice to find someone or something to blame -- to have a firm excuse -- but that's simply not the case here. It seemed apparent from the break that what we were watching wasn't the Hard Spun we knew -- he has more speed than that. Mario agreed, reporting that he knew immediately that Hard Spun was struggling with the surface.

The important thing is that Hard Spun came out of the race well -- we'll fight another day.

Congratulations to the connections of Teuflesberg on a very nice race."

The track must have been cuppy.

I agree, Jim, it is nice to see such gracious comments.

Yes, of course I know that.

Not like it matters to you what I "saw" last year, but I saw a horse I thought had a nice opportunity to improve as a 3 year old. To me, he looked a bit immature last year physically, but I liked his stride and attitude going into the races. I may have been very wrong, but I'm willing to give him another shot and we'll see how well he runs in the FOY. If he runs up the track, then there you go... this isn't a contest as to who is right or wrong. It was just my opinion on Scat Daddy. Who do you like, Andy? Who are some of your top horses right now for the derby?

Honestly, Cajun, I have no real Derby opinions right now. Geez, most of these horses haven't even really run yet. I know that Scat Daddy has almost no chance. His last race was dreadful and this isn't exactly a barn that turns them around once they go the wrong way. To be perfectly honest, while I think NoBiz looks as good as any right now, I wasn't overly impressed with his return. But, at least he did what he had to ( much like Any Given Saturday ). Scat Daddy stunk up the joint. I won't be surprised if he's retired much sooner than later.

I don't know how good the Risen Star really was last week but I do kind of like the horse that finished second. He showed some guts in the lane. Of course, it was a race that kind of collapsed. However, if anyone out of that race does well I would take a shot with him. What's his name again?

Imawildandcrazyguy :D

What really got me was this line..

"It'd be nice to find someone or something to blame -- to have a firm excuse -- but that's simply not the case here."

Refreshingly honest I thought.

Yeah, him. He ran a nice race. A slightly sweeter trip and he probably would have won. He's got some courage.

I'mawildandcrazyguy or something like that.

Not only did he get pace, but the final time of the Risen Star was slower than it took Appealing Zophie....

Sounds like they weren't particularly surprised. I guess there's some talk that he missed some training, though I'm always dubious how much that affected any performance, and frankly he ran at least as well today as he has done in the past.

Thanks for your opinion. He was another horse that sold for almost nothing as a yearling at the OBS. I like to see horses like that do well, so I hope he makes it into the derby.

Yeah, but he hadn't run in a little while, and he weaved his way through the stretch fairly well, and showed me something getting up for second.

He's probably not going anywhere, which could be said for that entire field, but I'll take my chances with him against similar.

He was off the board at 3/10 odds in a weak Calder n2l allowance in Mid-November.

I remember his rider was involved in a pretty bad spill the race prior, and I believe took off his remaining mounts after the alw race. That might be the lamest attempt at an excuse I've ever put in my trip notes....

Whatever happened that day he has certainly now shown the previous effort was legit. But, hey, the Risen Star was probably one of those phony accordian type races and nobody will ever run particularly well out of it.

Wednesday at Gulfstream is really FAR more important at this point.

One of the reasons they said they decided not to go to the Risen Star was because he developed a fever and missed a couple days of training. Jones said it was no big deal, just a little cough and he was fine.....the thing that kills me, is there was all this talk about how he loved the surface, how he was 100% (which I don't think is a good thing in Feb) and this race was a stepping stone....now he got a bad trip, Pino said he didn't like the surface, had too much ground to make up....special horses with a good jock create their trips....maybe he'll end up in the Derby but there has to be a lot of improvement.

That person is Porter's assistant and web site administrator.

Or, the next time you want to watch an Oaklawn race from your computer, you can go to ESPN.com's horse racing section and click on the live racing link to watch it for free... Or open an account with an online wagering site!

I say it again:

so what if Hard Spun had a below par performance in a race like the Southwest? It's not a graded event, and Hard Spun needs graded earnings. I'd be shocked if he isn't in the money at least in both the Rebel and the Arkansas Derby.

I don't know where Steve Asmussen's going with Curlin, but if he shows up in Arkansas, Hard Spun will have his hands full in my opinion.

NT

IF he moves forward off of the race yesterday, yeah I guess I wouldn't be shocked if he hit the board in the Rebel or the Arkansas Derby.

He's obviously not a superhorse, but if this were any other horse in just about any other race, we'd be talking about the miserable trip, getting hung outside, and the ride by Pino. As it is, folks are dismissing - prematurely, in my opinion - a horse because of one off the board effort in an ungraded race. I think Hard Spun will be back.

P.s. It's so hard to tell what any connection is looking for from a particular race. It didn't even look like Pino was trying, to be honest.

Tueflesberg laid the 100 egg

amazing how many horses get dismissed after a loss, and amazing how few make it to the derby without a loss!

Hey Mera,
Gander is ok...shucks, none of us gets every pick correct.
That said, if ya go to page one of this thread and read my post #10...
Nope, I'm not gloating. I've been wrong too many times.
Anyway, I'll be watching for Exhale. Just worked (easy) for 6f in 1:13.
There are plenty of good races coming up.
DTS

I disagree. If this were any other race I certainly think the trip would not even be discussed because it was routine for a horse with the nine hole. We all just see races differently. I just did not see a miserable trip for Hard Spun. Sure the first turn was less than ideal but I thought Pino guided him into a reasonable position without asking him for much on the first turn. From my viewpoint, the second half of the first turn Hard Spun was not more than 2-3 wide. Going up the backstretch he stayed wide but there really was not an option and beside that is not where you lose ground on the straight. Moving into the second turn he looked to be 3-4 wide and he started to gain ground on the leader until he just flattened out. If you think its because Pino wasn't trying thats up to you. I don't think its what the trainer wanted to see, namely to be passed in the stretch by Officer Rocket and Forty Grams.

Of course no one has to give up on a horse after one race, and he could come back to run a better race next time.

My only point is that according to the numbers that I use, his race in the Southwest was only slightly worse than his first route. The increase in difficulty of the trip and the higher level of competition cost him a bit. In my view the race he ran yesterday fairly accurately reflects the current level of talent for this horse.
.

Anyone else amused by the fact that the trainer coming off suspension trains "Forty Grams" :D

Amused?
Nope.
Some get caught, some don't.
Caution is the operative word.

Teuflesberg obviously is not going to win the Kentucky Derby---and will be overrated next time out off this win.

He was basically allowed to dilly dally on a rather uncontested lead, through very soft fractions! By comparison, the wire-to-wire winner of race #3, which was an ugly bottom level condition claiming race, set faster fractions than Teuflesberg did.

Teuflesberg's final time of 1:38.20 for one mile---also doesn't look so impressive when you consider a maiden sprinter, off a five month plus layoff, ran 1:09.92 an hour or so earlier on the card. Basically, running a quarter mile less, in 28.28 seconds less.

I wouldn't consider him a top 25 Derby candidate right now