For The Record
 

Hello everyone. My name is Justin Dew. Many of you have commented on a issue regarding Hard Spun and a blog entry that I posted on KentuckyDerby.com during Derby Week. I wanted to clear up a few things for those of you who are interested.

First I would like to thank Steve Byk for having me on the show. I enjoyed doing it. For those of you who have not met Steve, he is a first class guy and a lot fo fun to talk to.

I would like to say that I regret my decision to blog about a conversation that took place between myself and a private clocker. An official Churchill Downs website was/is not the place for that kind of "reporting". It was a mistake to write about that conversation, and I will make sure it does not happen again.

I don't mind being called names like "douchebag" and 'idiot" and "moron". I have been called a lot worse in my life, and I can take it. However, I would like to correct a few things that are being incorrectly stated in this forum.

1) At no time did I attempt to pass off the clocker's opinion as my own. I made it very clear in my blog entry that a clocker had told me that Hard Spun was "sore and stiff, and has not been training very well." This information had a profound influence on my wagering strategy, and that is why I wrote about it. At the time I wrote the blog entry in question, I had not even seen Hard Spun, nor had I claimed to have seen him.

2) Both I and the clocker in question knew exactly where Hard Spun was stabled. In my email box, I received a list twice a day that told me where every Derby contender was stabled. It was widely known that Hard Spun was at Keeneland. The clocker in question had seen his workout at Churchill Downs in mid-April, and had seen him train in the mornings at Keeneland. I will admit that the way I wrote the blog entry made it sound that Hard Spun was currently stabled at Churchill Downs. That was also my fault, and the result of poor wording by me. However, Hard Spun's location was not really the point of the blog entry. The point was that a private clocker had told me that the horse was sore.

3) Even though Curlin had not worked on the day that I wrote about him, he was on the track. In fact, I saw Curlin just about every day. I wrote about my opinion on the way he looked on the track. Those words were based on my observation.

4) The blog entry regarding Hard Spun was taken down because Churchill Downs correctly decided that the official Kentucky Derby website was not the place for that kind of "reporting". I agree with that decision 100%.

5) The comments that are/were left in response to my blog entries on KentuckyDerby.com are not screened. In fact, if one was to go back and read all of the comments left on my blog entries, he would see several that are critical of me and my observations. I will say that during Derby Week, the website received a lot of traffic, and many people wrote me to say they were having trouble leaving comments. But neither I nor anyone else was screening anything.

That's about all I have to say. I am very sorry that my blog entry caused such an uproar. That was really the last thing I wanted to do. If anyone wants to email me personally, my address is justindew76@yahoo.com .

Thanks.

That was very nice, but I have to take exception to one thing you wrote.....Byk is scum....and I think we all know that.

I apologize for calling you an idiot, Justin... shouldn't have posted that without hearing both sides.

This is what I was curious about (more so than the Hard Spun comment):

Do You Like Hard Spun? I Did Too.
Saturday, April 28, 2007

"A different clocker told me that both Curlin and Zanjero have looked excellent, and seem to handle the surface very nicely. That bolsters my opinion of Zanjero, although I still can't see myself playing Curlin for previously discussed reasons."

Just out of curiosity, how could a clocker know how they were handling the surface before they actually worked over it? :confused:

By the way, I used Zanjero as well.

Once again, I apologize for the nasty comments.

I commend you for coming on here to clear things up, as I don't yet have sirius satellite..

Cajungator,

All of us in attendance for morning training during Derby Week saw just about every Derby contender on the grounds at some point every morning. Accoring to clockers, an experienced eye does not need to see a horse go through a timed workout to determine if that horse handles the surface.

others can tell from a tv screen, or so I'm told.

Interesting... thanks for the info.

Better than in person, I humbly believe.

Only the most sophisticated.

Those with degrees from Tits McGee School for Blind Beuticians can tell just from grooming the horse whether he'll handle the surface.

Who was the private clocker?

I've heard from a more creditable source (CajunGator) in a private discussion, that Chelokee might have a foot bruise.

But hey, we all learn sooner or later that the best handicapping judgements we can make, will always come from information that is already available to us...and not from backside gossip or buzz. That's just the way it is.

You guys are going to confuse the hell out of Justin. By the way, it's the Tits McGee School for Blind Beauticians. :p

I will not reveal the name of the clocker. But trust me, you've heard of him.

I didn't say he had a foot bruise CURRENTLY. I was told that he had one before the Derby and would not have run regardless of whether or not he was able to get in last minute. Very funny on the creditable source comment. :p

Thanks. They didn't teach us no spellin' or typin' there :D

Same guy who loved how Circular Quay and Scat Daddy were training?

That was you.

I loved how he was training... can't help that he was hurting, Brian. :(

Do you really think that Scat Daddy ran his best race in the Derby finishing 18th? I don't. I just hope they work out whatever hoof problems he's got and he's back on the track sound.

Quarter crack was in his right front... see the bar shoe?

Attachment 389

The sad part....you probably do have the clocker trumped from a creditablity standpoint.

All bets are off if it's Bruno De Jullio though....nothing like an Italian man who supports dozens of charitable causes.

so you feel they ran an unsound horse in the derby?

Oh cut the sad face, like I would ever say something mean about you and actually mean it.

Trust me, you know as well as anyone that after all of my ragging on him I still didn't leave him off any of my tickets.

Yes, I do. I don't know how unsound, but I know that having a quarter crack isn't a positive thing.

I couldn't leave him off of mine... thought he might be good enough to run through it.

I didn't use Scat Daddy on a single ticket.

Right there with ya... A horse showing no improvement, with question marks surrounding his wheels..Was a gift that I could toss a "contender"...

Matz has confirmed all you told me.

Story was just posted on DRF.

This is correct. I've heard it as well from the same reliable source. He would have skipped the Derby whether he had gotten in or not. Matz moved him back to Fair Hill during that time as well. Don't know how much training he missed though.

Well we can all sleep comfortably tonight.

I certainly can cause now I know for sure that there will be at least one horse in the race that won't give up the rail to SS. I mean, this guy is the RAIL SUCKUP (at all cost) POSTER BOY. If only he (and Bold Start) had made the Derby.

Only Larry Melancon could keep Bold Start off the rail in Illinois.

only you could hit a couple of 6 fig pick sixes and come here and talk about it..........LOL

It was nice that the clockers (i have no idea which clockers, all I did was read each report that I could find ) totally misjudged Hard Spun's final work. Just about everything was just plain wrong from describing his effort to the gallop out and his energy level during and following. I was able to see video of his work for myself and also of his bath and being allowed to get out and eat some grass with Jones. So here was this powerful looking horse sitting on a big effort and all these so-called experts were treating it like their was some NEGATIVE factor at play. So it was a nice edge to have.


Scat Daddy - training in bar shoes... first of all we have all these armchair-vets/clockers sounding off about his bar shoes, when they aren't sure that it is anything new in his training routine. For all they know the guy has done this all year. One clocker actually wrote that Pletcher says he trains in bar shoes and it is nothing new. Or did he? Pays to have put in the work on a horse that was headed to the Derby for some time. Luckily the distance of the race relegated that guessing game to 3rd or 4th on exotic tickets.

"Clocker of the Stars" - Great guy, you have to love his intensity and passion for the game

Justin
 

Relatively speaking, when you come into the Kentucky Derby with as much hype as Fusaichi Pegasus, and blow the field away as he did, and follow it up with a second in the Preakness, a win in the Jerome and a nowhere in the BC Classic you are considered a " bust ".

Was he a good horse? Yes, he was....but he was also a bust AFTER the Derby. At least that's my opinion.

I think you can tell much better on television than in person. In person, you get to see it once. On television, you can replay it 50 times.

It's just like when there is an inquiry on a race. Do you think the stewards could make a decision from seeing the race live? Of course not. They watch the video over and over and then make their decision.

You can see much better when you get to watch multiple times on television.

Do you think that would be unusual? There are unsound horses running in every race including the Derby.

Blackthroatedwind,

Does this mean my letter to the editor of DRF made it into the Form?

Sure. If they hadn't printed it I wouldn't have talked about it.

Didn't they call you?

They called to get clarification on Fusaichi Pegasus' trip in the Breeders' Cup. Apparently, the DRF chart from the race make no mention of him being bounced around. So I had to provide links to a few articles that discussed that issue. I have had 3 or 4 letters printed over the years, but no one ever tells me that they will appear for sure. I typically don't know until I buy a form on Sunday (or is it Saturday?)

Justin

It's out tomorrow but it's online now.