Or maybe two quality horses managed to find the short way around in a race that was adding distance. Love to see a trackus on this one.

I've always said that if I had a horse pointing to the BC Classic, I would make his final prep be in one of the 8f grass races like the Oak Tree Mile, Shadwell, or Kelso. Those kinds of races are run strongly enough to help your horse get the conditioning he needs. Take some edge off, get some conditioning, and more importantly, it's more forgiving than running in one of those traditional dirt preps. Poly isn't grass but it seems that they play similar.

Note the difference in Hard Spun's work at KEE.. 1 mile.. not 4 or 5f.. Larry Jones said that work was important because he needed the colt to get something out of it with what was going to be a 6 week break between Turfway and Churchill. He said Saturday night that Hard Spun came out of that work 'blowing pretty good for 15 minutes', and that he knew he had gotten what he wanted.. He then sharpened Hard Spun's speed with the :57.3 blowout over the race surface.

There will certainly be future Derby winners that make the Lane's End and/or Blue Grass their final preps and work up to the race at KEE. But that winner will have been trained with the adjustments required to reach and maintain the appropriate fitness level required to perform to maximum capacity in the Derby, each horse's first attempt at 10f... (Something the guy with 5 horses fails to comprehend.)

meaning that the guy knows that this particular horse needed to do more...be very careful making blanket statements based on the performance of ONE horse...


BTW, when did you get you trainer's liscense?

A lot easier to know a particular horse in your barn when he's one of 25-30.. A little harder when he's one of 386 at one of 11 shedrows across the country.


Recently completed the University of Phoenix Online degree program.. I should have 250-300 head in no time.

which is why the best help is employed, I think john may have said it best to you yesterday on your show...Lukas didn't touch all the horses everyday either....you know who did that for him? Pletcher.

And Mark Hennig.. And George Weaver..

But Lukas WAS indeed hands on as he always had his TC horse(s) near him as soon as they were identified while Jeff Lukas headed up the rest.

And Maker


I did mean the final prep (work) for the top 5 wasnt over poly. Im starting to like the poly.

Here is what Oneill said in the DRF on things he learned.

Second, O'Neill recognized that the first five Derby finishers all had their final workout at Churchill Downs. Great Hunter and Liquidity had their final workout at Keeneland, something O'Neill would do differently next time. He said the Derby ordeal was both fun, and frustrating.

Thats just for the smartasses who had to jump in on this thread.

O'neil's horses were bombs for a reason, and likely would have finished up the track no matter where they ran their final workouts. Great Hunter had a horrible post and Liquidity just didn't belong in the race.

Street Sense, Hard Spun and Curlin were the favorites to win the derby based on talent alone and likely would have performed well no matter what surface they did their final work on.

The guy felt he made a mistake, and in retrospect he obviously did, as did anyone putting in a final work over the polytrack. Jim, whether you felt they had a chance or not Mr Oneill thought he made a mistake. Im sure most guys who didnt put in their final work over CHD are now second guessing themselves.