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Originally Posted by Danzig188
i think barbaro got a lot of attention, as did his trainer for the airplane story. and the fact he had not one, but two undefeated colts heading into the derby. barbaro also got attention because of the five week layoff.
bro derek may have been the #1 story for west coast horses, and of course he would get more press also because of giacomo, as well as his 'human interest' story with his trainer being in a wheelchair.
but i really think that if he had gotten so much more press altogether, that he'd have been the fave, not sweetnorthernsaint.
a lot of horses fail first time off a layoff. remains to be seen if that's the new bro derek, or if that race is a toss.
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Many analysts hated the fact that Barbaro had a hard time putting away Sharp Humor in the Florida Derby...say what you will and I'm not saying I agree with that assessment, but I really don't think it was the layoff thing as much as it was the fact that many just thought he was a turf horse and Brother Derek was winning far more comfortably on the West coast - albeit he wasn't defeating anything that was worth much.....
Trust me from being around CD for the Derby, Brother Derek was the feature horse for the media and it wasn't even really close....yes, NBC clung to the plane stort because that is what NBC does...remember, that audience is not a core audience...those are one-time a year fans watching teh Derby and they want human-interest stories......Hendricks was another human-interest story, but Brother Derek still got all of the "Industry trades" attention....
Sweetnorthernsaint was the fave based on his works at CD, his post draw, and his wise-guy buzz about running fast in the illinois Derby and all other preps by accounts of all speed figure sheets.....and he was...if you go back and look, Sweetnorthernsaint was the fastest horse on all sheets..Thoroughgraph, Rags, Beyers...all of them he was right up there with the fastest numbers and best patterns....Plus, he showed that he coulkd carry his game all around the country....
Many very smart people who work for CD and have been oriernted with studying the Derby and been involved in it for YEARS agree that Brother Derek's draw probably cose him to being the favorite or close to the favorite..