The Fountain of Youth is only one mile now. Which makes it more of a two grade sprint than a Derby prep race. Still, 4 of the 23 listed contenders from Future Book One are entered.

On a general note, 7 of the 23 in the first future book already had 3 races under their belt by September 15, 2008. This is far too many. No professional gambler would even consider betting one of these to win at under 80-1. With all of the injuries that could go wrong any way, this practically guarantees that these 7 colts will not be healthy enough on Derby Day. They are absolute throw outs for the Derby.

But not for the Derby preps.

Being one mile makes it tougher to handicap. More luck is involved, and also the jockey is more important. A bad jockey can rate a colt completely out of a mile race. This happens less often with Grade 2 jockeys, though.

Continue reading "Fountain of Youth, Sham, and Battaglia-post your picks for Fountain and Battaglia"

Quality Road kept near the lead to win the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, which is now more of a sprint. That isn't bad, except for handicappers. It gives a lesser horse a chance to get somewhat luckier than 1 1/8 or even 1 1/16.

For the horseman, and for the horse, it is good news. It is a little less strain. You just can't pick a Derby horse because he won at a mile.

Quality Road has good, if not stellar bloodlines for the Derby. His bloodlines are usually those of turf horses, however.

The most impressive run of the day was by Theregoesjojo, who closed a lot of ground, and passed up a lot of Grade 2 horses.

Trained by Kenneth McPeek, Theregoesjojo began his career in May as a 2 year old, winning at Churchill Downs. Ordinarily, this would be frowned upon as being too early, but since then, McPeek has not pushed Jojo very hard. He came back to run 4th in a grade 3 at Churchill in July, then rested up.

Continue reading "Theregoesjojo"