(Oops, you know I meant Kentucky Derby).
by J. Mesa

An up-and-down horse racing prep season has given way to the first leg of this year’s Triple Crown. The first Saturday in May marks the annual running of the Kentucky Derby and this year’s Derby will see some upstart runners with lots of early-season success and even more yet to be proved.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has distinguished himself as the premier trainer in America by wining the Eclipse Award an amazing four times in a row. But the one thing that has eluded this top-tier trainer is a single Kentucky Derby win. Could this be the year?

Pletcher will push two runners into the starting blocks at Churchill Downs while carrying a giant ape of a 0-19 mark into the Derby – the longest such losing streak for any starting trainer. Not only has Pletcher gone 0-fer, he almost missed getting a runner in the race at all this year.

The Pletcher-trained Monba and Cowboy Cal needed a one-two finish in the Blue Grass Stakes to qualify for the Derby. Now that Pletcher’s ponies are entered, he finds the odds stacked against him as this year’s Kentucky Derby picks favorite Big Brown is trying to become the first horse since 1915 to win the derby with only three lifetime starts. Another heavy favorite Gayego, finished as expected in the Arkansas Derby, winning the race and showing the he can run on the dirt too.

So will Pletcher’s one-two punch be enough to claim the Derby Roses for the first time in 19 tries? If the end of the prep season is any indication – he has as good a shot as any!

Aside from Gayego and Big Brown’s winning performance, this year’s prep season wrapped up a little unpredictably. Pletcher’s Monba surprised all by winning the Blue Grass Stakes. As surprising as Monba’s win was, perhaps even more eyebrows were raised at those that didn’t win.

Kentucky Derby picks favorite and Louisiana Derby winner Pyro finished a lackluster 10th in the Bluegrass - a performance his handlers called the worst race of his life and immediately threw out his performance as any indicator of their runner’s Derby potential. Pyro’s connections even went a step further by blaming Keeneland’s Polytrack surface for his disappointing finish (despite training there quite a bit). The other pre-Derby favorite Big Truck who won the Tampa Bay Derby finished 11th. Even Fountain of Youth winner Cool Coal Man finished a dismal ninth.  Can any of these heavy hitters who showed so poorly to finish the prep season be a serious threat to Pletcher’s destiny?  

This year’s field is wide open and as uneven as any we have seen. This unstable field has Pletcher primed to push his pony to Preakness prominence, oh sorry, I keep doing that but alliteration has a mind of its own. What I meanto to say was that Pletcher should have a great shot at getting the Derby monkey off his back and into the winner’s circle.

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