Street Sense moves to the top of the Dispatch Derby Poll
 

Street Sense, the 2-year-old Eclipse Award winner, moved to the top of the Dispatch Derby Poll in week two holding onto a narrow one point lead over Nobiz Like Shobiz at the end of voting Monday.

Nobiz Like Shobiz and Street Sense flipped their positions in the poll while still garnering the same amount of first place votes. The one point margin further emphasizes the competitiveness of the crop this year.

“While none of the major horses raced this weekend, there were a few allowance and minor stakes winners that received some attention,” said Travis Stone. “With the margin so small last week, all it took was someone adding a new horse or a horse receiving a vote for the first time to adjust the margin.”

Poll Results: http://www.racingdispatch.com/poll.php?year=2007&week=2

Does the derby winner get a Racing Dispatch shirt?

Of the top 10, I believe Stormello (he doesn't have a prayer) is way too high at #6. Any Given Saturday is way too low at #9.

I did not vote Stormello in my top 20 if that makes you feel better.

There are maiden claimers at Gulfstream with a better chance.

Stormello in the top ten!! That is funny.

At the risk of sounding ignorant...

Why do you guys dislike Stormello's chances so much? I'm assuming that one reason he was voted so highly is because his dam is a Carson City mare like Barbaro's.

Carson City is actually one of the last names you'd want to see in the up-close pedigree of a Derby Prospect....in my opinion.

Barbaro was by Dynaformer (Stamina) and from a female family laced with stamina.

IMO, Stormello is not as talented as Brother Derek was at this point last year, and much like BD, he looks like an early developing type, who's already polished, and doesn't have much room for future improvement.

I believe he's rated that high because he won the Norfolk and Hollywood Futurity--the top two West Coast races for 2yo's around two turns. The same two races Brother Derek won last year.

Thanks for your thoughts. Precisely why I asked. :)

What's going to be exciting about this is seeing how these horses move down and up the list. Stormello will probably drop down given these thoughts...

As for a t-shirt, when they win a $2 million horse race, the last they want from us is a t-shirt!

But we'll send one anyway.

I still love Hard Spun.

On record from the week after the BC that Street Sense won't be in the gate on Derby Day and will never run a negative thoro again, definitely not within his 3 yr old season. Too much, too soon. We'll see what happens.

Well, I don't know enough about the Thorograph numbers to comment on his future numbers, but I prefer good horses, like Street Sense, than slow ones and think all this " he ran too fast too soon " stuff makes absolutely no sense. Surely it's easier to pick one horse, even like Street Sense, and be right when he doesn't live up to expectations, and certainly his BC performance was enhanced by a perfect trip, but he still seems like a good horse. Just not as good, perhaps, as Nobizlikeshowbiz.

I think the problem is we haven't seen enough genuinely good horses in the past decade and too many doped up flashes in the pan. Ya know, Easy Goer ran a 116 Beyer fig in the Champagne and he turned out OK. Point Given ran some pretty good races as a 2YO and he turned out OK as well. While I'm sure they're the only ones at least they prove anything's possible.

I agree but the call is for the rest of his career, as well as his entire 3 yr old season. If his thoro number is to be believed, it is the fastest 2 yr old number in the BC ever. That puts him in better than "good" category so if he's that good he'll show it....The early 3yr old number of Keyed Entry vs. FuSam last year ruined both....And Beyers are nice, but they aren't thoros, and a study done looking at negative numbers early in the 3yr old season last year on the thoro board was simply stunning when it looked at the what happens, not only up to the Derby, but the rest of the 3yr old season....The history of a number like Street Sense got is not very long so we'll have to see. Maybe he is the next Easy Goer. I hope so.

Keyed Entry follows a LONG list of horses from that barn that sizzled early and fizzled just as fast and FuSam appears to be a horse who didn't want any part of a distance past a mile. His BC Juvenile strongly demonstrated that to me when he sat a perfect trip, loomed up like he was gin at the top of the stretch, and had no finish whatsoever.

For every " reaction " I will give a logical explanation.

He's definitely in the right barn if he's going to be a great one. My main concern is two preps for the derby.

The "reaction" to Barbaro's Derby was a breakdown....The horse also very quietly needed wraps in January. Probably not the soundest to being with and Matz did a tremendous job with him.

Not sure about that. He seems to have one foot out the door.

and the following year, Grand Canyon ran a 122 Beyer in the Hollywood Futurity.......


Fast horses are more likely to get hurt than plodders....but I agree with BTW, just because a horse runs fast early on, doesn't mean he's toast.

The star of the triple crown series, over each of the last four years (Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, and Barbaro), all ran a triple digit Beyer figure as a 2yo. three of them in career start #2---Afleet Alex did it in career start #3, but that came in July of his 2-year-old season.

All four of those horses ranked right among the fastest 2-year-olds in the country on figures.

You really are my vote for MVP (most valuable poster)...thanks for bringing this up. :)

I'm also a skilled swordsman....