Churchill in the morning (Katford)

Have I mentioned recently how much I love Steve Davidowitz? He was the first handicapper I ever read and his commentary, found at DRF+ or Trackmaster, never disappoints. In his monthly installment at Trackmaster he breaks down the facts about the contenders and generally points out that there’s still plenty to keep an eye on before any meaningful Derby rankings happen. I have to agree with this. While I continue to be super flattered to be included in the PDI, my “rankings” are really more like a watch list than anything else. If I can even pick just one horse this year, it won’t be until very close to May 2nd, if not ON May 2nd.

And speaking of reasons why one shouldn’t make any decisions just yet, DRF’s clocker-in-chief Mike Welsch is on the ground at Churchill and filing daily somewhat lo-fi “Blair Witch”-esque (lol… good one Kevin!) video reports on the morning works. While I’d like to see a variety of interpretations, I’ll take what I can get. Kennedy has a nice wish list of what he’d like to see out of the contenders that you might want to keep in mind as you check-in with the Blair Witch reports.

In a rare diversion away from the Derby for a moment, Welsch mentions Rachel Alexandra’s gallop as if a space ship landed and out walked the perfect embodiment of horse prepping for a big a race. Ok, maybe I’m a little bitter because my dreamy beloved is not the 3yo filly of the moment (I actually think giving her some time off is the right thing to do!) or perhaps it’s that a filly has to be a super freak to get any media play at this time of the year.

Hello, how are the other fillies prepping? There are other fillies in the race, aren’t there? I gave Churchill’s official tweeter a little razzing today (although I think it’s just a RSS feed) about this daily report that mentions all the fillies that galloped but only gives details on Rachel Alexandra, it’s a paltry trickle of information compared to what’s out there for the boys. How about a little detail about ALL of the fillies, not just the favorite? Grrrrr.

In other news GbG was recently honored by Case the Race as #9 of of the top 10 independent blogs for the Derby! This is somewhat shocking news because I’ve barely mentioned the Derby, although they did make that caveat… however, I don’t equate frequency with rigor, just frequency. If anyone did manage to make it all the way down to #9 in search of some Derby content, I can recommend the following:

Railbird, for kick ass historical data. LATG for continued and appropriate snarking at the Times (I totally agree), That’s Amore, who’s managed to finally catch a bit of the Derby fever and the already mentioned Kennedy who continually adds rigor to frequency when it comes to the Derby! All of this and more should help you make sense of what do with those Kentucky Derby odds… have fun!