Tuesday

Dear Derby Diary,

I was a good boy last night and drank Sweet Tea all evening instead of those Kentucky Bourbons that seem to have a little man in them with a hammer the next morning! I made it down to the racetrack early this morning and took in some of the light workouts. What a beautiful time to be at the track.

I ran into a bunch of trainers and owners but more about that later. Yesterday after sleeping in a good while and shaking off the aftereffects of my dinner with DB and Trotter2, I did some celebrity snooping. It is only Tuesday and they are everywhere already. I guess it is because of the week of partying leading up to the race.

I ran into Ashley Judd last night at dinner. She is one of Kentucky’s favorite people although more in Lexington than Louisville. What a babe though! Really nice too. She us even prettier in person than on the big screen. What a crush I have!

I also have seen the notorious Sanjaya several places. He is a news magnet. The big rumor around town is that he went to track officials and wanted to sing the Star Spangled Banner before the featured race. When they informed him that the entire complex sings My Old Kentucky Home he was a little confused but said that he could learn it. I’m afraid that if he soloed the effort, it would not only drive away the crowd but the horses might be too traumatized to actually race!

I’m sure that we will see Paris Hilton and her girlfriends later in the week as she always seems to pop up where there are photographers and a party, not necessarily in that order.

The big buzz this week though is the appearance of Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell hob-nobbing it around town together. I just happened to get a quick shot of them when I dropped in at a party sponsored by a soft drink company. Who would have thought the two of them?!?

But I ran into some big Sim Celebrities as well. How about the trainers of some of the top three year olds in the game? I was down at the track this morning and ran into Camry of Sledge4 Stables, owner of the number one rated colt AWESOME FORCE. This is his first trip to the big race and it is a real dream come true to get to the Derby let alone coming in as the top rated horse. He shared with me about his prized colt. He is also pretty excited that a lot of the pre-race buzz has his FORCE as the favorite.

He told me that he feels if the horse runs the same as he did in the Florida Derby, that he should have a very good chance to have a shot turning for home. But with 20 horses, finding a hole to make your move is like finding a parking spot at the Mall on December 24th, you might see it and make an effort to get there before someone else, but all of a sudden someone cuts in front and takes the spot.

Awesome Force shipped to Kentucky last Saturday following a final workout in California last Friday. He will get a light breeze on the Kentucky track on Wednesday so he can get a feel of the dirt course. Camry is shipping in his jockey brother W. vonWedel from North Dakota to workout Awesome Force in California and also to travel with him to Kentucky and breeze him. The owners have also been on the phone non-stop over the past few days with calls from jockey agents trying to land their rider on ‘FORCES back.

He also mentioned that Awesome Force is named in part in the memory of his father, Awesome Again. And ‘Force’ was simply put there as a sign of strength. It should be a truly exciting week for them.

I also looked up Trainer/Owner TBGifted from the TBGifted Stables. I am really excited about the chances of his colt, ACHAEMENES . I asked him about his colt and his interesting name. He told me,”His name comes from the first Persian Dynasty. The first foal I got from his Dam was from a very obscure sire in Kansas and the foal, a filly, was G1 placed running 2nd in the Equinics. Her name was ASTERIA who was a Persian princess and sister to Cyrus the Great. The Dam, YOUR LAUNCHES, is co-owned by another player so this was the first chance I had to breed to her for a couple of years and the Persian name theme seemed to work well the first time so I went back to it and named the colt ACHAEMENES after the founder of the first Persian Dynasty. I don’t really think the name had much to do with his ability but it is odd how her only really good foals carry ancient Persian names!”

”As far as my colt’s chances, he needs more ground to do his best work as do most all of the horses I breed. If I did my homework right with this breeding, which I am sure I did, 9f is nothing but a warm up for him. Many, but not all, of the top ranked horses at the moment have shown that they have started to have difficulty at distances farther than 8.5f. Some of the others have run huge numbers at 9f which is great because it is showing that they are at or close to their ideal distance. This is very good news for me.”

He paused reflectively and told me, “The horses that concern me most are not the ones posting big numbers already, it is those that have slowly improved with more distance and are now posting numbers in the high 90 SPFs. Anything can happen and there can only be one winner but I think my colt can win the Derby. There are people entering knowing they don’t have a prayer but they are entering because they want to experience the race but my colt has a real shot. There is still plenty of tough comptetion and I would be happy with a top 3 finish but I think ACHAEMENES can win it”, he said with a big smile.

Someone who is not quite as happy with his horse is Semental of the Ivan y Juan Racing Complex. His horse EL INDUSTRIAL qualified for the Derby but is still nursing a sore foot and will not run. He sadly shared his thoughts, “I was the happiest of campers when he grabbed the first locked spot for the Derby in the ALL SAINTS DERBY, and in a listed stakes that he was entered just for conditioning, he came back lame to the barn. At the moment there is a slight possibility, maybe about 25%, that he will run in the NEW YORKER, but he will definitely concentrate on the big races from the summer on. It is a huge disappointment as you can imagine, but we have passed that stage now and we hope to have a sound horse for a trip to the TRAVELERS and the BREEDERS BOWL CLASSIC in the fall.”

I don’t know about you but really can’t imagine how much it would hurt to have a horse qualify and then not be sound for the big race. It almost makes me want to head to the bar in the hotel and order just one Kentucky Bourbon and reflect on it a bit. Hmmmm…I sure hope I don’t run into Sanjaya, that boy is everywhere!

Good luck to all runners!

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