I get a thrill every year around this time when I look at the Derby prep races and all of the horses have the Triple Crown nomination symbol next to their breeding lines in the DRF PPs.

Several years ago I spent a cold wet miserable February in Dublin Ireland. My humble advice for the backers of the colt Dublin (Afleet Alex out of Classy Mirage) in the G3 Southwest at Oaklawn on Saturday is to wait for his races in April and May. This colt will be rounding into form nicely during the warmer months, a much more pleasant experience than Dublin in February.

I don’t understand why both the Blood-Horse staff written piece and DRF’s Mike Welsch never mentioned the stewards’ inquiry of the stretch run in yesterday’s 8th race at GP. From the head-on shot it looked like the eventual winner Doubles Partner and Chris DeCarlo really made their own hole at the rail when the horse dug his right shoulder into Saint Eligius who then went into Lentenor. Both Lentenor and Saint Eligius were pushed several paths wide of the eventual winner. Maybe not enough to take him down in the eyes of the stewards but well worth a mention in the journals of record. Add the Paulick Report slug line “Lentesnore” and you get a distinct feeling Barbaro’s (over hyped?) little brother is getting written off a bit too early in the game. Look for Lentenor to prove himself later this spring, possibly in an emotion generating appearance in the Preakness.

A local Chinese restaurant has a special dish called the Triple Crown: it includes jumbo shrimp, beef and chicken in a spicy Hong Kong sauce all for a mere $11.00… far cheaper than what I’ll be playing on May 1st.
Happy Derby Trails.

Yesterday at Aqueduct, Eightyfiveinafifty was set to make his second start as a 3-year old after winning his first race this year (and only the 2nd race of his young career) by 17 lengths. He was the odds-on favorite in the race. A good performance in this race would send him well on his way for preparing for the Kentucky Derby this May.

So what happened?

Going around the first turn his bit broke, the jockey lost control and the Eightyfiveinafifty ran off the track, breaking through a rail and then leaping another rail heading off the grounds. His jockey, Jorge Chavez, fell off sometime after the crash through the first rail. Luckily the horse was caught and miraculously was pretty much OK except for a gash on his leg requiring 14 stitches. Chavez was taken to the hospital and appears to be OK as well.

A day that began with such high hopes and excitement ended with the horse very likely being taken off the Derby trail. Preparing for the Derby is a very carefully planned thing. A horse only gets one shot to run in the Derby since it is a race for 3-year old horses and any glitch in the plan can spoils a horse’s chances for getting to the big race.

Quality Road is a perfect example of this. Last year Quality Road looked like he was going to be going to the Derby as the favorite. He’d had some hoof problems early on but had apparently overcome them. He’d broken the Gulfstream track record in the Florida Derby in March 09. But then the hoof problems reemerged shortly after. He was taken out of training to heal up and missed the opportunity for the Derby. He ended 2009 with a freak out at the starting gate at Breeders Cup (read more about that here). Yesterday he was back at Gulfstream for his second start as a 4-year old.

So, what happened?

He broke his own track record and won by 12-3/4 lengths in the Donn Handicap. You can’t make stories like this up!