The Twinspires, looking maaaah-velous (eqqman)

This cracked me up.

If you were looking for a sign that Pyro has bounced out of his Toyota Blue Grass (gr. I) fiasco in top shape and is back to being the Pyro of old, you certainly didn’t get it Monday morning when the colt worked six furlongs in fog so thick it wasn’t able to be timed by the Keeneland clockers.

This is a crazy year, no? The foggy Gotham, War Pass out, possibly a couple of talented fillies in, a bunch of horses who haven’t raced on dirt yet, a bunch of confirmed dirt horses doing their final prep on poly, a South American invader and a hype machine so strong I’m wondering if it’s the real reason the Times started it’s racing blog.

I’m much more interested to see Pyro’s work at Churchill anyway. I was surprised to see Curlin get back to work so soon. Since he’s shipping to Churchill presumably with Pyro, I wonder if Pyro’s last Derby work with be with the master? I hope that doesn’t tinker with his odd too much!

Meanwhile, one has to look no further to understand why Steve Davidowitz is my handicapping idol. In his more recent DRF column, he shares some Derby lessons, both generally and his own.

The thing I like about Davidowitz is that he’s holistic. He reminds us to not only take into account each horse but to look at how each piece of the puzzle could potentially come together (or not). Seeing people tout Big Brown as being “head and shoulders” above the rest based speed figures and a flashy performance cracks me up.

I have all the same questions about Big Brown that I had about Curlin last year. Foot issues not withstanding, let’s say he can hold the distance, will he hold up in stretch battle? Can he look a horse in the eye and dig in?

I suspect there are a lot of people out there who think he won’t get a chance to answer those questions, but I’m not one of them. When he checks off all the items on my “prove it me” list, then I’ll be singing his praises, just like I now do for Curlin.

Davidowitz goes on:

I also have come to realize that it is a bad mistake to settle on a firm pick before the final field is known, before post positions are drawn, and before the overall pace of the race can be mapped out. At the same time, trying to stretch your view of the race to accent marginal longshots for a win play, usually is a prescription for a stack of losing tickets.

Sorry Ernie, I’m not gonna do a top 5… but I will update my Derby Dating selections at least one more time before the big dance! Until then, check out some Kentucky Derby Odds!