Kentucky Derby - Who will win today?

[Jason]

My Top 3 are:

1. Bellamy Road
2. Bandini
3. High Fly

Possible: Sun King

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2005/

* Last year's Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner, Smarty Jones, at four, is retired (due to an injury he got running the Belmont last year at three), and has a booked 111 breedings this year alone, at $100,000.00 per breeding! How's that for living?

 

[mattmns]

I have 5k on High Fly.

 

[Jason]

I wasn't even close. It is a good think I don't bet.

 

[mattmns]

50-1, seems a tad suspicious but ok.

 

[Moonbear]

* Last year's Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner, Smarty Jones, at four, is retired (due to an injury he got running the Belmont last year at three), and has a booked 111 breedings this year alone, at $100,000.00 per breeding! How's that for living?

You should see the barns where they do the breeding and house the studs! The stalls those horses live in are nicer than my house! And it's really funny, they have what looks like a menu of the studs and their fees! Oh, but of course to be technically correct, it's not $100,000 per breeding, it's $100,000 for a live foal. For that much money, they do keep breeding until the mare gets pregnant and has a foal. And of course everything is videotaped as proof of breeding. The only horse there with a really crappy job is the poor horse that gets brought into mount the mare just to make sure she isn't going to kick the stud!

BTW, it was Giacomo that won! Wow! What a long-shot! Darn, I wish I had gotten a bet in...on the rare occassions I bet on horses, I like to toss a little in on the long-shot.

 

[The_Professional]

Looks like Steinbrenner's Bellamy Road placed seventh. Ha! now Mt. Steinbrenner will erupt and he's going to fire the entire Yankees coaching staff!

 

[Jason]

Moonbear,

They're magnificent creatures. I have two Off-the-Track Thouroughbreds (OTTBs) here on my ranch, one of which I've been working with. Jack is seven, and has always had a wonderful mind. But he was a mess when he arrived.

The website I linked is not mine. It is a chronicle of some of the least known heros of our time.

Please take the time to go through it.

http://thelongridersguild.com/

 

[Moonbear]

Thanks for that link. It looks pretty interesting. I'll be bookmarking it to read in more depth later.

My friends raise horses. One raises them for racing; she's practically grown up on the tracks around here (her father raises horses also). Nothing that's Kentucky Derby quality, but they race them at Turfway Park when it's open, and once in a while down at Keeneland. Her husband is more interested in raising dressage horses. Personally, I prefer dressage more than watching them race. Racing is hard on the horses for them to be put out on the tracks as competitive athletes while they're still so young and their bones are still growing. It's not unusual for the great ones to really peak early and be retired young due to injury. Events like dressage really illustrate the skill of both horse and rider.

Then again, when my niece and nephew were in 4-H, I helped out as the announcer there (my step-sister dragged me in...apparently nobody they could find was willing to be put up on a microphone; I only slipped up once when they switched from Western to English and I forgot to switch terminology from jog to trot...the judge gave me a good nudge and it was corrected). That was great fun, because I had the best view of the event, and with 4-H kids, you can really start to learn to spot the riding mistakes in equestrian events since they are much more obvious than in more accomplished riders. When you get to Olympic class equestrian events, it's really hard for the average person to see where the mistakes are because they are so subtle, but it's still great to watch.