TheGreatDegenerate

After approximately a one year hiatus from posting a blog on this site, alas, I am back.  This time I'd like to take the opportunity to make a few comments regarding this year's crop of top three year olds who, presumably, will run at Churchill on the first Saturday in May.

 Obviously, I Want Revenge freaked in the Wood.  He looks like the horse to beat in the KY Derby but I can't stand part owner IEAH and thus, I must root against him.

 Quality Road won easily in the Florida Derby while running on a conveyor belt, which you or I could have won that day on that surface as well.  Moreover, the news yesterday of the quarter crack in his foot makes me even less of a supporter than before, which wasn't much to begin with.

 Poor old Pamplemousse bowed a tendon and is now off the Derby trail.  I was looking forward to seeing how the son of Kafwain, a horse with a $6,250 stud fee, would fare against the blue bloods who would have shared the starting gate with him May 2nd.

Notwithstanding the fact that Pioneer of the Nile is the son of my all-time favorite horse Empire Maker, I can't back him given the fact he's not proven on dirt.  I made that mistake last year with Col. John.  Sure the photo says he won the Travers on a dirt surface, even though we all know Mambo in Seattle actually won that race, I still can't play a synthetic horse again in the Derby.

Musket Man looks like a player but come on, who has he beat in his prep races?  My $3,500 claimer I used to own could have given him more competition than he had in Tampa and Chicago.

This all brings us to a horse who may not even qualify for the Derby but if he does, he's my play.  Although he didn't win the Florida Derby, once he gets a more even track without such a speed bias and an extra furlong with which to stretch his legs, Dunkirk is your Derby winner.  If indeed he doesn't qualify for the Derby based on their ridiculous graded stakes earnings requirement, then I'll give you a different horse to back.  In the meantime, however, Dunkirk is the play.  Good luck to all and I hope to post again soon.