Rather telling list in Illman blog: Highest pre-Derby Beyers

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Highest winning Beyers for three-year-olds before the Kentucky Derby (since 1992):

120 - Bellamy Road (Wood Memorial)
116 - Sinister Minister (Blue Grass)
116 - Limit Out (Bay Shore)
116 - Coronado's Quest (Wood Memorial)
115 - This Ones For Phil (Sunshine Millions Dash)
115 - Kafwain (San Vicente)
115 - Texas Glitter (Spectacular Bid)
115 - Holy Bull (Florida Derby)
115 - D.J. Cat (Swale)
114 - Millennium Wind (Blue Grass)
114 - Event of the Year (Jim Beam)
114 - Serena's Song (Jim Beam)
114 - Unbridled's Song (Florida Derby)

There's a lot of useless info in that list, too. 5 of those races were sprints and thus rather irrelevant. Of the other 8 races, 2 of those horses (Coronado's Quest, Event of the Year) did not start in the Derby.

That leaves 6. Amongst the remaining, I would argue that only the Derby efforts of Holy Bull and Unbridled's Song could be considered "head scratchers" (and really Unbridled's Song ran well considering the well-documented foot problems he suffered leading up to the race).

The other 4 were simply done in by unfavorable pace scenarios (that's being very generous to Sinister Minister BTW).

I wonder what Coronado's Quest would have done in either the Derby or the Preakness (he was a race day scratch from the latter). Kind of hard to swallow the "doesn't like big crowds" excuse when he did just fine in the Wood and also won on the Belmont Stakes undercard. How many more chances does Stuart Janney have left to win a classic?