Theroit would be fine IMO. He did good at Toga and did well in some big spots on Blame. Ramon would fit, hes patient and thats what Dublin needs, 1 late explosive run.

i'd stay right here in arkansas. it's been good to baffert, and the horse certainly seemed to handle it well here.

Hoping Dominguez will take the call on him again after Super Saver's dud today...Dominguez would fit him like a glove now that Dublin is over the throat surgery. Plus, Ramon looks to save ground as good as anyone, which apparently Thompson and Nakatani didn't realize can help. Dublin was easily 2nd best in the Rebel. Noble's Promise got the absolute perfect trip of perfect trips and still couldn't get it done. McPeek needs to keep him at a mile, as he's distance challenged. Anything more than a Mile and Noble's Promise is going to be stretching his limits.

I agree with everything....

How was Super Saver a dud today?

I don't ordinarily like being critical of riders, but Nakatani rode Dublin like he was the second-coming of Secretariat.......

And it is very rare that horses do what Odyseus did today !!!!!!

You were impressed with that effort? He might get 10th in the Derby with that effort. There appears to be a ton of speed that will surely compromise him that is lining up for the Derby with Rule, Super Saver, Sidney's Candy, all of whom are one-dimensional speedy front runners.

I thought he was pretty bad.

Beat by a half length off a 4 month lay-off?

Super Saver only lost by a half length after a long layoff -- not what I would call a dud. Plus the horse won a Grade 2 race at Churchill by 5 lengths.

.......u got that right.

Lost in all of this talk is the Honeybee win by No Such Word, which was pretty nice, albeit with a good trip. She is a horse who has actually gotten better going two turns and is worthy of consideration down the road considering how seemingly average the 3YO fillies are.

NT

The Tampa Bay Derby was about as ugly a race as you could see. When four horses are in a blanket finish like this, it's usually a sign of a bad race.

Odysseus was dead on the turn and won the race when it completely fell apart in front of him. The fourth place finisher Gleam of Hope was beaten a length. His prior top Beyer on dirt was a 73. Super Saver beat him 16 lengths in the Kentucky Jockey Club.

Kind of thing happens all the time when a top "minor" leaguer like Theriot (who did nothing wrong with Dublin) gets preplaces by a guy who is supposedly A team. This is why I was happy that Servis stuck with Elliott and Titchey with Rose during their TC campaigns.

He's run at least 4 very good races against proven runners at 1 1/16, though I agree he's bred for 7f. Since many feel that LAL ran the "race of the weekend" to just beat him, I'd say he was very good in defeat. NP just keeps running good race after good race.
As for Ramon, I'd love to see him on Dublin. CNak's ride was dreadful.

Lost too is that Beautician was stymied at the top of the stretch and lost all momentum. If she smoothly finds a seam off the turn, she gets first run and Larry's... I mean Cindy's.. filly has to catch her instead of the other way around. I was actually pleased with the result because No Such Word certainly boosted the P4 payoff considerably.

Beautician and Noble's Promise ran much better than I thought. I was certain they had McPeeked.

NT

Just saw the race and yeah ,it was a pretty brutal ride. But look at the bright side Joseph. Next time he runs (guessing the Ark Derby) you would think he will be a better price than 7/5.

Like when Ritchey replaced Rose with Johnny V for the Rebel?

Nakatani's ride wasn't pretty, but I see worse rides all the time. If Dublin was that good, he could have overcome it.

I don't know about that. He was like 3-4 wide the enitre way around until he got to the stretch. Throw in the premature move on the backstretch and it makes Dublin a very unlikely winner no matter how good he actually is.

Dublin was ridden 5 wide into the 1st turn & looked to be in the 4-path for some time on the backstretch. Nakatani hit the accelerator way too early. A really overconfident ride

In contrast, the Gomez ride on LAL was smooth and patient, and a good reason why the colt got up in time at the wire.

Not entirely... Gomez did run Lucky right into a jackpot on the backstretch when he had to check up. I get the feeling one reason Nakatani moved on Dublin when he did was to hem Gomez and Lucky in... And it worked because Noble's Promise was in front of Lucky and Cardiff Giant was down inside blocking the rail. If Lucky doesn't get up later, I think there'd be some criticism of Gomez over that move. Watch the replay again. I think Nakatani is taking more heat than necessary. Dublin's prospects aren't diminished by this outcome at all. It wasn't a great performance by any means, but I think some of what went on with the early move was a rider's call. Anyway, as seems the case now regularly, the Arkansas Derby is going to be very good.

I think it was pretty good race riding to try and block Lookin at Lucky on the backside by Dublin. Overall a good race by the top three. Everyone keeps saying Noble Promise can win at 10 furlongs. But the Arky Derby is 9. The order could be completely reversed on April 10th. And the they could reverse again on Derby Day.

Nakatani has about as much chance of riding this horse again as DrugS has of tipping a waitress 20%