Eskendereya skipping FL Derby, prefering Wood
 

Per Haskin via Zayat. Big plus for the Big A...

I guess that means Rule will probably go favorite.

That will literally rescue the Big A, which was staring at a watered down version of the Gotham in the Wood.

NT

Im sad. I guess I have to bet Letenor and Cams horse now on Saturday. What are my alternatives? Ice Box?

That Dutrow article in the DRF scared them off.

Radiohead is likely up the track, career top back on 3 weeks.....
Not my style.

It don't matter when the Babe is calling the shots....no pun intended.

Baffert on Lookin at Lucky's last important work before the Rebel: "I was training him from the Four Seasons at Whistler."

i don't know , i thought awesome act looked pretty good in there too.

Awesome Act had problems shipping over because of the snow storm the week before. So if if the race was sub par he ran a pretty good race considering the difficulty of getting him here.

Eskendereya seemed to put it all together in the FOY. The Wood seems like a good final prep for him as it gives him 4 weeks going into the Derby. These have not been the best of times for New York racing and it's a great to see one of the stars of the 3 year division running here in NY.

He had a nice pace setup - but yeah... he did run what passes as a respectable figure in this crop and like you mention maybe shipping problems could have possibly had a very slight negative impact on him.

I don't know though ... freaking Nacho Friend - first off of a 7+ month layoff and first time beyond 6 furlongs sits just 3 lengths off that strong pace - makes first run while 4 wide the whole way around the turn ... and he still has enough left to finish 3rd beaten just 3 lengths.

The 5th place finisher in the race was beaten less than 5 lengths - and he had never won on dirt before and was beaten back to back in NY Bred N1X alw races.

I need to see one more from Awesome Act to get a better gauge.

I dont get it Doug? Everyone liked Nacho Friend... EVERYONE...Stve, Andy and Brian all touted him. He had to have something going for him, why cant Nacho Friend be pretty good and move forward next out, and Awesome Act is simply really good?

Don't bet the race, is always one of my favorite alternatives.

With Dutrow running Funnybone here, the pace should be hot... Im going to give Soaring Empire a long look.

Awesome Act needs to improve but I don't think he needs to improve that much. All your points are valid and I guess we'll find out a bit more about him and the rest of this crop in the next few weeks.

I'm surprised. He loves this track. Good for NY and AQ, so I'm glad he's coming but I do not like Rule in this spot.

I agree, I dont want Rule... He can win at 8-5, whatever. Maybe he sits the trip off Funnybone, who knows?

Is D'Funnybone running in the Swale or the FL Derby?

I guess they would prefer four weeks between his last prep as opposed to six.

Dutrow told Grening that if he knew Eskenderaya wasn't running that he would send D'Funnybone in the FL Derby.