I think Albarado's jump was more about Carroll wanting a two race committment, but don't quote me on that...

Or about not telling Frankel to f*** off.

antidote to the 02x---MD Wolfson

No he isn't. And I say this as someone who can't stand Albarado.

I think this race is much more wide open than those who are handing it to Dennis of Cork. Here's how I'm pricing the race:

1 Recapturetheglory 7-1
2 Instill 20-1
3 Z Humor 4-1
4 Atoned 5-2
5 Denis of Cork 5-2
6 Golden Spikes 7-2
7 Real Appeal 10-1

Article in today's Trib on Golden Spikes connections


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,3486189.story

I find it hard to believe that Denis would be that high

The way I see it, they are all racing for 2nd- Denis is for real and will become a undefeated champ on May 3rd. Maybe he is taking an easy prep schedule just to save a little for his triple crown campaign. I hope he is 5-2 against these!

He has hardly any edge figure wise and his 96 Beyer was the product of a perfect trip when a brutal pace fell apart late. COntrast that to a horse like Atoned, who was very wide in his last, clipped heels in the start before that, and in both cases made big premature moves only to get nailed at the wire. He was arguably the best animal in both those races. I'm also anticipating a fairly soft pace and that will not work to Dennis the Cork's advantage.

If Hawthorne played like it played today there wont be a horse win from less than 3 back. The track was ridiculous today.

That is normal, if they close there, they played with the track

They did something to the track, rail is REAL good today, Master Commander was a fading 3rd and came back to almost win, and the 1's just beat Coach Jimi Lee and High Expectations. 1's were garbage.

I'm with Recapturetheglory here, has great dirt history, and some here claim knowledge that Denis of Cork's connections have other races on their minds

$15 straight trifecta

D of C with Z Humor with Atoned

D of C had an easy run in the Southwest. Lone speed types out front were real easy to reel in now he'll get the acid test today.

Cork looked like crap out there, even if the connections had another race in mind you know they wanted to see something better than that.

Didnt see the #1 at all in this race. "The big 3" of the race didnt run at all. I guess you could make a little excuse for DofC. But he did have time to get back into the race.

I was on the #6 and to get beat by a 15 to1 shot just frosts my a s s.

Excellent call

ANyone think the 1.00 Super should've paid more than 1600 ? Maybe because there only was 7 horses but the favorite runs out and we got a 33.80 winner... I think these dimers are killing the payouts.

PS..

Fair disclosure I hit it for a buck so I am biased here

I guess dennis of corks connections were right. This would be the bad race for him. Man did he look horrible out there.

How dare you question the connections of Denis of Cork. His trainer galloped Easy Goer fer christsakes!!!!

I know that the connections know more then i do but good night did that horse look awful today. I guess there thinking was that the race woudl come up light, which i guess it did considering the winner was 15-1, and they were just trying to get some money to get him in the gate of KD. Man what a mess b/c i have a bet on him in 1st pool at 45-1 ugghh.

Still stand by your statement?

i threw him out, but had the wrong horse on top

I was being sarcastic. He's garbage and the connections were playing games with a donkey they dressed up to look like Pegasus.

I know Coach no harm no foul. Just dont know what to think about these 3yr olds this year. i can say this based on what ive seen and my very limited knowledge of horse racing there is no curlin, street sense, hard spun in this group. Its like none of these horses want to be the fav for KD.

Denis Of Cork's problems were a lot deeper than the fact that he wasn't as good as his Southwest win suggests and that they called audibles with his prep schedule to try and place him in what looked like the easiest spot to get him Graded Stakes earnings and increase his overall repute.

He was basically wide over a very pro-rail favoring race track - and got very little pace to set him up while the top two finishers set slow early fractions and the race had the look of a merry-go-round.

I'm not ready to call Hawthorne's track a speed rail bias today. There were sections of the card where it seemed that way....but what about races 1-3? It almost seemed like the inside was a detriment in those races. In the opener the chalk had a clear lead on the inside and got run down. Widish types won the next two. Then in the 4th race, the inside speed did go wire to wire. Granted, he went :25 and 49 and change so the pace likely was more of a factor than his path. THe 5th saw part of an entry go wire to wire on the inside. The 6th was a bit of a strange race as JZ Warrior was ovebet....the filly hadn't run back to her 2YO top and she was still eligible for a FNW1X....the other highly bet horse was a filly who break her maiden by over 10 earning a 89 in her only start. That 89 was earned at 5 1/2 furlongs, a distance Hawthorne rarely cards, and likely, a number that was not accurate. I didn't bet the winner, but she was usable. She'd run in stakes in 6 of her last 7 races and she hadn't run on dirt as a 3YO so one could see improvement as a possibility with her. There wasn't much speed in the Illinois Derby and one of the horses who figured to be in the top 2 setting the pace, Golden Spikes, was taking the blinkers off. In the 8th race, the Roussel firster stalked the pace wide to win. The heavy chalk wired in the 9th but in the 10th, another 1st time starter closed wide to win. Rail bias? Half the races were won by wide types so I can't say it was biased.

Is it me or did the first 5 finishers stay in the exact same spots all the way around?

Yeah...exactly what I noted...It looked like Atoned was going to close like a bastard...but made up zero ground.

I find it hilarious how people come on here and make statements about a race, observations, thoughts - what have you - and then after the race are quoted and ridiculed. I don't get the negativity.

Anyway, Denis of Cork was absolutely pace compromised today. I though Golden Spikes was applying enough pressure down the backstretch to wilt the pacemaker, but it didn't matter, they just continued in the carousel-like ways.

Unfortunately, Denis of Cork will unlikely have enough earnings to get in the Derby, depending on how the final handful of preps shake-out. While he's dependent on speed up-top, the whole crop is poor, so any horse who has at least won a race should be in the Derby.

It looks to me like DofC should make it in off earnings unless something drastic happens next weekend.

I'm happy for E.T. Baird, love watching him on a front runner, has the same gift his old man did. Hope he keeps the mount for Ky.:)