Lex Luthor destroys Derby field
Yesterday we witnessed a performance that was reminiscent of Slip Anchor’s real-life Derby success 20 years ago. As is his want, Lex Luthor burst out the stalls like a horse possessed, straining at the bit to get to the front, nothing was going to prevent him being where he wanted to be. As the field sorted themselves out, the colors of owner Galileo were prominent in 1st and 2nd places with Giantsbane, as expected, sitting in behind his stablemate. Jockey Edwards then slowed it up in front as the field climbed to the highest part of the course.
As they started to freewheel down Tattenham Corner, Edwards picked up the pace on the imposing son of Empire Maker who looked like a horse on a mission. He started to put distance between himself and his pursuers. Giantsbane fell away and it was another son of Empire Maker, Strong Belwas, who took up the challenge to run down his paternal half-brother.
Into the straight, and Strong Belwas was making no impression, instead it was left to ‘Mr Guts’ himself to attempt to catch the runaway leader, Good To Be King was running on through beaten horses but the leader had flown. Lex was much too good on the day and jockey Edwards allowed himself a long look over his shoulder as the horse passed the winning post 6.5 lengths clear of Good To Be King with Strong Belwas keeping on for 3rd. Disappointing favorite Cortez was almost 10 lengths back in 4th, and jockey Harzheim reported afterwards that the colt was a spent force at halfway.
This win has really set up the division as both Lex Luthor and Cortez now have a victory each over the other. It will be fascinating to see the pair of them duel for supremacy throughout the rest of the season and we could have a repeat of last year when 2 colts went head-to-head for most of the year.