I hear ya. It's a work in progress I'm sure. He's still aggressive, but he seemed at least kind of comfortable sitting off the Dutrow horse.

Did he rate, or did he just break a little less sharp than some and was caught wide? I'm not really sure what to think. But was a nice comeback performance regardless.

This is something I look back on when handicapping key races. What did the entire field do in comparison to their recent form. When you see stuff that doesn't add up, like all these going backwards in one of the biggest races of their short careers, it is virtually impossible.

Another thing I see often is horses who run their career high fig in a losing effort. What I have noticed is more times than not this means the race was too highly rated and these horses will bounce.

I thought he was going to be toast after the first turn.

Whatever the figure, there 's little doubt Hansen has the speed to win the Derby and today's performance showed a new dimension that will serve him well. Whether he'll relax enough early is a huge question, but bottom line is that he has answered a lot more questions than most with 9 weeks to go.