I guess this is getting a little of the original topic, but...why is the assumption that horses are getting faster and/or CD is souped up on derby day? It seems one person posts an opinion and then people just glom onto it.

I dont see how horses are getting faster, you can find 30 yr old records at AQU and lots of other older records at other tracks. Some distances arent raced much anymore (2 1/4 mi.??) but there are other distance where the records are still older. Not to mention weight carried. E.g. Artax broke Dr Fagers 7f record at AQU I think by e.g. 1/5 sec. Only he carried approx. 20 lbs less wt. So what is that? Hardly makes Artax faster, or any evidence the breed is faster.

If you look at a sport like track/field or swimming those records keep tumbling nearly every year. Horse records are not doing that and if horses were getting faster I would expect it to look like that. At least in cases where the distance is a regularly run distance.

The other assumption that seems to be accepted is that CD is souped up on derby day. Take a look at the times run in the derby 1964, '67, '62 and '73. There are very few derbies run that fast other than Monarchos I guess. So what does that tell you? Whose running 1:59 derbies these days?