Day's Wrap Up

Kentucky Derby

We weren't overly impressed with anyone before this race, and the slow final time bore this out...how very pedestrian & ho-hum this year's 3yo crop is.

(It's one of the reasons we only took a flyer bet in the Superfecta pool(BTW nice payoff w/ the fave on top, co-fave third, fourth-fave second, & the fourth-place finisher not that much of a longshot at 28-1... 29K+. Almost $9 million bet into this pool--that's what allowing 20 separate betting interests w/ no coupled entry / field will do for you!),

Although the race looked promising when 22-4/5 & 46(actually was 46-1/5+ but only 46 was flashed onscreen) was hung up early...they all backed off Hard Spun and he throttled the pace down considerably: the 6F & 1M splits were fairly subpar.

Besides the winner, no one else did any real running at the end except for the 4th place finisher- who actually made up ground on the winner after having to swing out 10 wide turning for home.

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Credit should still be given to the winning horse and connections though:

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Jockey: Calvin "Borail" Borel turned in the stereotypical ground-saving ride he's become known for. This has been a sort of breakthrough year so far for this 20+ year veteran...he's been riding with extreme, obvious confidence: at the recent Keeneland meet he brought in some longshots and turned in some masterful rides on the Turf particularly, and these past few days at Churchill he's been on a zone.

Here in the Derby, he did crowd a horse or two when he cut over to the rail early and in the stretch, but those are slight indiscretions typically both unavoidable and forgiven due to the huge size of the field. The only thing we'd critique about the ride occurred very late:

excessive whipping at the end with the outcome kinda in the bag, as well as premature and overly-excited celebration just before the wire-- we briefly worried he'd fall off.

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Trainer: Carl Naftzger broke the 2y0 Breeders Cup winner / 2yo champ hex while doing it his way--with only 2 prep races this year. Actually, I believe the latter contributed greatly to breaking the hex: horses get so much in steroids- to say nothing of antiobiotics & other medicines- to withstand the rigors of racing / serious training and help to heal expected minor injuries and illnesses. What this does to the typical precocious 2yo is stunt its growth and make it too heavy: bone plates fuse, virtually stopping vertical growth, while piling on extra bone & muscle. The resultant body type is more suited to sprints than to marathons-- at the same time its 2yo lightly-raced counterparts get a chance to grow up in more unimpeded fashion / end up taller by following year. Who would you favor to win the Boston Marathon--somebody muscular but short or someone taller, longer-legged, leaner?

Naftzger withstood all criticism and stuck to his game plan...he also demonstrated how much of a stand-up guy he is by telling jockey Borel early that the mount would remain his-- despite getting calls from just about every top-name jockey's agent.

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Horse: Street Sense also deserves kudos for its athleticness: although he lags back early, he has quick acceleration & can make multiple moves in a race.

And his winning margin was deceivingly small-- the place horse was able to slow the pace down the backstretch in uncontested mode; had he been pressed, and thus finished out of the money-- Street Sense's winning margin would be 8+ lengths...maybe more with the tiring pacesetters causing extra traffic problems late.

So barring injury, unless someone very good is waiting in the sidelines and/or an extreme speed bias pops up at Pimlico or Belmont, Street Sense has an excellent chance to sweep the Triple Crown.

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On a different note, most of the commentators / announcers for the Derby need to go:

Mike Battaglia, Tom Durkin, Tom Hammond, Bob Neumeier, and Kenny Rice have for years regaled us with their inane banter and interviews, along with useless MOTO analysis and "insights". This year's telecast sunk to new lows past their already-low standards, with too many examples to waste time actually having to type out here-- don't know how some past interviewee hasn't bitch-slapped one of them already.

They resemble a casting of Tatoo, Grandpa Munster, Mister Rogers, Lenny, Squiggy, and Pee Wee Herman.

We can just picture these "ignorant sluts" to paraphrase SNL, waking up every morning feeling so witty and insightful... so unexpendable in their line of work...puleeze!

If the commentary and interviewing is going to be so useless while performed by such unattractive & dull characters-- heck, the governor of Kentucky came off much wittier and entertaining-- you might as well substitute the Beulah Twins.

We can think of so many worthwhile substitutes-- how about some pedigree & form/insider insights with say, Lauren Stich, Joe Takach, Jan Rushton...how about some expert fig, pace, structured bets & handicapping commentary from say, Ernie Dahlman, Jim Cramer, Dave Schwartz, Ken Massa, etc.

And if not substitute entirely, at the very least they each can be interviewed / given a short segment to present.

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DELAHOYA-MAYWEATHER

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Fight didn't live up to its hype-- but that specter always hung in the balance coming in: what with Mayweather's moving up two classes, brittle hands, size disadvantage, but speed & age advantage...he could turn the fight boring and ugly.

ALL the announcers & commentarists here were very disingenous at the end, proclaiming the fans got their money's worth-- while we wouldn't exactly rate it a flop, it certainly didn't match the hype.

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Mayweather: deserves the biggest knocks here...after so much running at the mouth he did very little to show how "great" he supposedly was.

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Delahoya: still relies too much on his left, he needs to bang / even lead with that good right he has. And his jab almost disappeared for this fight-- he threw it infrequently early: when he did it worked, and he stopped throwing it altogether the last 4/5 rounds.

Apart from that he does get high marks for his blocking punches / defense(he had to crouch down & lunge / chase his more elusive opponent, thus leaving himself more vulnerable in the process) and conditioning / preparation / strategy(vis a vis being at a speed disadvantage).

We feel he needed someone more authoritarian in his corner-- a Dundee, Steward, Mayweather Sr. to point out--nee scream out to jab more. Now Roach did keep pointing that out, but in too soft / calm of a tone. Maybe Roach was more worried about having Delahoya conserve energy for late, for DLH was very tense from the get go. Mayweather, in stark contrast, was way too relaxed at all times-- and it showed in his lackluster effort.

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As far as our bet, we thought we had lost it late-- that DelaHoya would get the decision...had he just jabbed even a little bit in the later rounds, instead of looking for one big opening, he likely would've got the nod.