Derby 2008 was the Worst Derby Ever.

As I said over at John’s post about Sour Grape Kool-Aid, I’m not quite ready to deal with Big Brown the horse vs. Big Brown the implication. My friend Joan sent me this before the Derby:

Here’s all I have to say about this year’s Derby: if Big Brown wins, which he won’t unless all of the stars in the sky are out of alignment and the racing gods are out to pasture, I’ll be sick to my stomach. Because if he does, the “me too!” school of copy cat management will ensure we see more lightly raced horses next year and a new decline in the Derby fields going forward.

Mix in a trainer with a “checkered past” full of violations, an owners group that wants to go public and a whole lotta crass bragging and they make Curlin’s connections look like sissy suburban kids trying to look tough.

Big Brown ran a thrilling race, one I’ve watched less than my customary race replay watching habi-trail due to general upset-ness and the need to process what the F just happened. Not that anyone is going to show up in the Preakness, but I still want to a few more things, for example, how would he do in speed duel? Can he really rate as nicely as he did yesterday when he doesn’t have to?

Usually, I would have gone to the The Office with Swifty, but as fate would have it he had a function to attend out of town. I went to my beloved Belmont with Jessica & Teresa… I had a great time with them but let me say that I won’t be going back to Belmont, or any track, to try and play a card at another track unless I can get a table with my own TV.

One bright note was that as we entered we ran into Alan from Bug Boys on his way out. It was nice to have an impromptu mini-TBA meet-up and we agreed that we would plan to meet up at Belmont some time soon.

I played the card here and there with no success. My biggest issue was that I couldn’t find a good place to settle in and get to work. I really need to have a home base in these situations. When I’m going to the track to play the card it’s easy, I pick a spot in the stands, put my crap there and I get down to business. For the Preakness I’ll definitely be back at The Office with Swifty, and hopefully Jessica and Teresa too.

Another “feature” of the day was that the snazzy new GIANT flat screen TVs (which are really nice) didn’t have the sound up so we had to watch in silence as the Derby unfolded. Jessica liked Gayego, Teresa liked Cool Coal Man and we all know I liked Pyro. As they turned into the stretch it was clear none of them were in the mix. At first I thought Big Brown was Court Vision, which was exicting but then I saw the saddle cloth. It really looked like Eight Belles could have caught Big Brown for a second, but it was not meant to be.

The simulcast signal didn’t have the breakdown so we had no idea it had happened. We were very busy expressing our outrage and dismay for the many disgusting implications a Dutrow/IEAH win with a lightly raced colt with bad feet had for our beloved sport which is already teetering on doing itself in without this.

Oddly, there also was not a lot a celebratory trash talk going on that one would expect in simulcast outlet. From what I can tell most of the folks on our floor were rooting for Pyro. A few minutes later Swifty sent me a txt saying “who broke down?”. I called him immediately and he said there was a horse “laying on the track”.

It took a few minutes to figure out what was going on but when he told me my heart sunk. I think the worst part was having to walk back over to Teresa and Jessica and tell them.

With the exception of Pyro, I felt pretty good about my read on the situation. Denis of Cork ran a great race with Bo-rail giving him almost exactly the same ride he gave Street Sense last year. Tale of Ekati did well and Anak Nakal improved.

Here’s what I did:

Pyro to win

Pyro exacta boxed with Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork

Exacta box of Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork

Tale of Ekati, Court Vision, Z Fortune, Eight Belles and Denis of Cork to win

Pyro over Anak Nakal, Visionaire, Gayego, Big Truck and Smooth Air

Pyro boxed with Colonel John

One surprise was Recapturetheglory. Although I guess it wasn’t a surprise since the splits were slower than I anticipated and my notes about him were that he needed slower splits to do well. His owner/trainer said that “he left most of his race in the paddock” as he acted up a bit and didn’t respond well to the crowd. I would have loved to have seen what he could have done had he brought most of his race with him!

Speaking of which, I’m still bummed about Pyro. It looked like he had the room and but no gas in the tank. Blinkers Off over at Railbird, easily my favorite Derby reporting, noted Friday that there was a rumor floating around the backstretch a little birdie told him that Pyro has “chips”, as in bone chips. If they come out with this news in the next few days I will be even more grossed out than I already am, if that’s possible, with the cash out mentality that’s ruining racing and horses.

Here’s my take on the Eight Belles tragedy… let’s not fool ourselves, it could have just as easily happened in the Oaks. Good bye Derby 2008 and good riddance!