Most Vicious Derby Pace Ever

[The Indomitable DrugS]

One of the most embarrassing bets I've made happened with an offshore prop bet in 2001.

It was still a few months before the Derby - and, going off bitter memory, the prop bet was worded something like....

'Number of horses to compete in this years Kentucky Derby' :

Over 17.5 (-240)
Under 17.5 (+180)

Yes, the crop looked unusually strong at the time, but the over seemed like nothing short of stealing. It's the Derby! .. everyone wants in! Preps were as scattered as ever .. Lukas longshot Commendable had won the recent triple crown race. I took the max I could get on the over.

Most every important prep race is won in extremely dominant fashion with the winner often running a giant figure and looking like a superstar visually. The also-rans often all appearing as hopelessly overmatched as it gets.

Only 17 go. I offically lose my prop bet because D. Wayne Lukas ... who has never seen a hopelessly overmatched 3yo colt he didn't want to jam into the Derby .. was so in awe of the competition that he allowed his streak of 20 consecutive years with at least one Derby starter to end.

The '01 Derby pace was absolutely blistering beyond belief. The performance of 3rd place Congaree was very special. He probably ran better in defeat than any singe Kentucky Derby winner last decade did in victory.

The key to the whole race was Songandaprayer getting stuck down in post position #1. Songandaprayer was bought for 7 figures at a 2yo in training sale - he had great early speed and almost blew a 5 length lead going 5fs in career debut. He easily won the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth after running off on a big lead over an inside-speed friendly track.

Songandaprayer was exposed as a horse totally incapable of winning a race like the Derby with rating tactics when such tactics failed in subsquent starts after his FoY win. When he drew post position #1 .. there was no doubt that the raw speed which helped him sell for seven figures as a 2yo would be showcased. It was his only true weapon.

8 different horses were within 10 lengths of the lead at the first call .. note the extreme negative impact the pace had on their form...




Express Tour's nose victory in the $2 million Dubai race may not look like much - but keep in mind that he was an undefeated 2yo sprinting sensation in Florida - and that Street Cry and Lido Palace ran 2nd and 3rd to him in that Dubai race.

Street Cry, maybe better known as the sire of Zenyatta and Street Sense, was an excellent horse who would crush the field in the following years Dubai World Cup. Lido Palace would return to America after the weak Dubai 3rd to Express Tour and win both the Woodward and Whitney over such horses as Tiznow and Albert The Great.

And even though Congaree actually saw a 1 point jump in Beyers - do note that he toyed with Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos in the Wood...and, the Wood was the only route race run on dirt at AQU that day, and the figure was VERY questionable - and could easily have been as high as a 114.

But most of all - I really think the greatness of the '01 Kentucky Derby boiled down to one little observation...

Only two different two-turn dirt routes were run that day.

In the 10f Derby - the early fractions were a savage 22.25 and 44.86

In an 8.5f alw race for older males that same day - Fan The Flame went wire to wire after setting fractions of 24.18 and 47.51.

Yep, the same Fan The Flame who got into a bitter head to head speed duel with recent Tiznow conqueror and 6/5 favorite Wooden Phone in the Grade 1 Oaklawn Park Handicap his prior start. The same Fan the Flames who ran off to early lead and finished 2nd in a 300K Graded Stake in the first race after his Derby day allowance win.