TWENTY-TWENTY VISION

Twenty (20) colt and geldings, deemed among the best of the crop, got their post positions for the KENTUCKY DERBY yesterday and Woodbine's man-on the-job, John Siscos, has provided some notes from the draw (to the reader who asked about about the owner's stats on the Woodbine website - yes, Thoroughblog and Siscos corrected the situation).
As of 8 a.m. this morning, the world was essentially coming to an end at Churchill - with heavy, heavy rain teeming down.
Meanwhile, up here in T.O., the sun will shine strongly for 4 days or more and that's cool - our Queen's Plate and Woodbine Oaks horses are getting geared up this weekend.
Have to go work on my Derby analysis now...
Here's the news

DERBY POSTS AND ODDS


Post.. Horse... Jock... ML
1 - [17] Sedgefield... Leparoux... 50-1
2 - [16] Curlin... Albarado... 7-2
3 - [10] Zanjero... Bridgmohan... 30-1
4 - [1] Storm in May... Leyva... 30-1
5 - [9] Imawildandcrazyguy... Guidry... 50-1
6 - [7] Cowtown Cat... Jara... 20-1
7 - [6] Street Sense... Borel... 4-1
8 - [3] Hard Spun... Pino... 15-1
9 - [4] Liquidity... Flores... 30-1
10 - [2] Teuflesberg... Elliott... 30-1
Post.. Horse... Jock... ML
11 - [5] Bwana Bull ... Castellano... 50-1
12 - [14] Nobiz Like Shobiz... Velasquez... 8-1
13 - [13] Sam P... Dominguez... 20-1
14 - [8] Scat Daddy... Prado... 10-1
15 - [11] Tiago... Smith... 15-1
16 - [12] Circular Quay... Velazquez... 8-1
17 - [15] Stormello... Desormeaux... 30-1
18 - [18] Any Given Saturday... Gomez... 12-1
19 - [20] Dominican... Bejarano... 20-1
20 - [19] Great Hunter... Nakatani... 15-1


NOTES FROM KENTUCKY DERBY POST DRAW
Courtesy Woodbine Entertainment

(Draw Order - Horse, post position, morning line odds)

1st pick – STORM IN MAY, post 4, 30-1 in the morning line, blind in the
right eye

2nd pick - TEUFLESBERG, post 10, 30-1, ridden by Canadian Stewart
Elliott

Trainer Jamie Sanders
"I have high hopes for him. I've learned a lot from a great man, Nick
Zito. I expect him to be close to the pace."

3rd pick – HARD SPUN, post 8, 15-1

Trainer Larry Jones
"He obviously liked the racetrack, everything looks good. He's got a
high cruising speed."

4th pick – LIQUIDITY (Owned by J. Paul Reddam, previously of Windsor, Ontario), post 9, 30-1

Trainer Doug O'Neill
"He's training great. He loads late, which we like."

5th pick – BWANA BULL, post 11, 50-1

6th pick – STREET SENSE, post 7, 4-1

Trainer Carl Nafzger
"He's matured, he's gained weight and he's a better horse than he was
last year."

7th pick – COWTOWN CAT, post 6, 20-1

8th pick – SCAT DADDY, post 14, 10-1

Trainer Todd Pletcher
"You have to speculate where the others are going to choose."

"He's had the bar shoes on since last May and he's been doing well with
them, so why change?"

9th pick - IMAWILDANDCRAZYGUY, post 5, 50-1

10th pick - ZANJERO, post 3, pronounced Zan-hair-o, 30-1

Trainer Steve Asmussen
"Both horses (Zanjero and Curlin) are manageable, have size and they're
near one another in the gate...they'll think they're working together."

11th pick - TIAGO, post 15, 15-1

Trainer John Shireffs
"We were hoping for post 10 (same as 2005 Kentucky Derby winner
Giacomo). They're very similar so we've had the same training
program."

12th pick – CIRCULAR QUAY, post 16, 8-1

13th pick - SAM P, post 13, 20-1

14th pick – NOBIZ LIKE SHOBIZ, post 12, 8-1

Trainer Barclay Tagg
"(The blinkers in the Wood Memorial) made him focus a little more.
(The
second time around at the Kentucky Derby) is still pretty wild."

15th pick - STORMELLO, post 17, 30-1

16th pick - CURLIN, post 2, 7-2

Trainer Steve Asmussen

"Both horses (Zanjero and Curlin) are manageable, have size and they're
near one another in the gate...they'll think they're working together."

Positives? "He's a fast horse and a talented horse.

Negatives? "The horses he's facing."

17th pick - SEDGEFIELD, post 1, 50-1

18th pick – ANY GIVEN SATURDAY, post 18, 12-1

19th pick – GREAT HUNTER (Owned by J. Paul Reddam), post 20, 15-1

Trainer Doug O'Neill
"The only scary thing is that (ESPN commentator) Kenny Mayne likes the
horse. (The post) is not ideal, but at least he loads last in the
gate."

20th pick - DOMINICAN, post 19, 20-1

TODAY ON ESPN.COM

“GREEN WITH DERBY ENVY?”
By Jeremy Plonk
Special to ESPN.com


Money foolishly spent goes hand-in-hand with the Kentucky Derby. Whether you're scraping together three or four-hundred bucks for the ugliest hat this side of the Ohio River or conning your clueless co-workers into supporting a can't-miss Derby superfecta ticket, green is the color of the roses.

So it comes as little surprise this Kentucky Derby season that a poorly named colt dubbed The Green Monkey was the worst-spent money on the campaign trail. How bad? Sixteen million bad. That's 16 with six zeroes. And zero being the operative word: zero career starts, zero career earnings. I've left more change in the seats of cars retired to the salvage yard in my lifetime.
But cry not for the Monkey's men, owner Michael Tabor and trainer Todd Pletcher. Big-money Taber still fires twice this Derby go-'round with Circular Quay (whom he owns outright and bred) and Scat Daddy (whom he purchased co-interest in along with Jim Scatuorchio). Pletcher not only trains that duo, but also three additional Derby players -- Sam P., Any Given Saturday and Cowtown Cat.
The Green Monkey won't be in the Derby field, of course. He hasn't had even a workout since a brief appearance last August at Saratoga. After being a $16 million purchase as a 2-year-old in training, he's become the poster child for how not to win the Kentucky Derby. Not that any of us common folk need a reminder that writing a $16 million check for a four-legged athlete is good sense.
This year's Derby won't be without big-dollar investments, however. The Green Monkey's stablemates, Cowtown Cat and Any Given Saturday, sold at auction for $1.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively. Likely favorite Curlin, a hotshot winner of a mere three races, sold privately for a reported $3.5 million after his debut win. But that's a far cry from $16 million.
As for Derby 133's bargain basement pick-ups, try on the likes of Teuflesberg, purchased for a scant $9,000 on the final day of a yearling sale when pouring rains sent prospective bidders packing early. Or, Storm In May, whose one bad eye and one good one added up to a $16,000 pricetag.
So what could have been more shrewdly purchased with that $16 million in "Monkey" business?
* All 20 of this year's Kentucky starters would cost much, much less. Based on actual auction prices and estimates on the homebreds, maybe about 13 million give or take a few bags of feed.
* The 8 most-expensive horses to ever run in the Kentucky Derby -- combined. Even though that would have netted you 2000 champ Fusaichi Pegasus and 2004 runner-up Lion Heart, their combined Derby Day earnings of $1,358,400 still leaves you about $14.6 mil in the hole. God bless breeding rights!
* All 24 Kentucky Derby winners purchased at auction since 1960, for a mere $6.2 million -- leaving you $9.8 million of beer money (which might buy two or three watered-down rounds on Derby Day).
The point is this: as you watch this week's Kentucky Derby and the gloved hands waving from the ritzy boxed seats, blue collar still reigns in this blue-collar town. Funny Cide originally sold for $22,000; War Emblem for $20,000; Real Quiet a mere $17,000. Then there's Lil E. Tee for $25,000; Sunday Silence for $32,000 and the great Seattle Slew for $17,500.
Granted, inflation puts Seattle Slew at about a $70,000 purchase by 2007 standards. Still, wouldn't you rather have one Seattle Slew over 941 The Green Monkeys.
Don't answer that. Just spot me a c-note and get behind me in that superfecta line. I've got a can't-miss feel for this year's Derby result.

Jeremy Plonk is the editor of The HorsePlayer Magazine and its Web site, HorsePlayerdaily.com.


OOO WHAT A NIGHT

The first Wednesday night card of racing for the 2007 Woodbine season was held last night and handicappers and horsemen were met with a very slow Polytrack surface and a fairly distinct inside bias.
Only $1.3 million was bet on the card of 8 races.
The featured 1st race went to RMC Stables’ EFFTEESEE, now a 2-time winner on the card, who shot to the lead from the rail and won easily under Slade Callaghan.. The grey Trajectory 4-year-old is trailed by Danny Vella.
Trainer SCOTT FAIRLIE and jockey MICHELLE RAINFORD combined for 2 wins on the card – with class dropping NUMBER JUAN (owned by Jeffrey Sangara) and the maiden filly WILD DEBUTANTE (Richard Englander), also dropping in class and exiting a strong key race. Fairlie now has 6 wins on the season.

Bombs were frequent on the night – Lynne Bunting’s MIDNIGHT JOKER, a Foxtrail 3yo filly, won her maiden in race 3 at 30 to 1. The filly was making that all important 3rd start off the layoff and dropping from an open maiden allowance to Ontario-sired and exiting the hot maiden race won by Yolie.

Bill Rice and Coleen Dennis’ EVION, a 4yo by Ascot Knight – Heretical,Regal Intention, won her maiden at 20 to 1 in race 6 for trainer Nick Nosowenko. Evion was one of numerous gate-to-wire winners on the card. The filly had not raced in 2007 but, interestingly, all 3 of the winners of her 3 starts last year, won their next starts.

And another 20 to 1 shot, DR.KOSCH, parleyed a rather dull 8th place finish, beaten 16 lengths in his April 14 season debut for $11,500 maiden claiming, into a win in the finale under Shane Ellis. At the risk of being a red-boarder, Dr. Kosch ran his best career Beyer Figure of 54 in his 2nd start of 2006. He is trained by Daniel Harvey.


SKY CONQUEROR, MARYFIELD

Top Canadian-breds SKY CONQUEROR (last year’s champion grass male) and MARYFIELD (a graded stakes winner this year) are in action the derby card. The former, owned by Bill Sorokolit, is in the Woodford Reserve on the grass and the latter in the Humana Distaff.
More notes on the Derby card later Friday or early Saturday.

SUGAR SWIRL RUN DOWN LATE

Stronach Stables’ SUGAR SWIRL was in a hectic pace duel and then clear on a big lead into the stretch of a 1 mile allowance race yesterday at Churchill Downs before being caught late by favoured Eyes On Eddy.