Tuesday

Dear Derby Diary,

I got up early this morning and hit the Hotel gym to work off a little of that catfish and beer then I made it down to the racetrack early and took in some of the light workouts. What a beautiful time to be at the track. It is one of my favorite times around the stables and paddock areas. There is always so much going on and yet it is relatively quiet and peaceful at the same time.

It is also a great time to talk to some of the trainers and owners as it is like the calm before the storm of the day for them. They know that soon the regular reporters, photographers and gawkers will be around but this early AM time is mostly just for them and their horses. I was able to get some insight about a couple of this weeks entrants that I will share later in the article.

Last night I was able to hit a couple of the early week parties and did a little celebrity scoping. It is only Tuesday and they are everywhere already. I guess it is because of the week of partying leading up to the race. It seems like every time there is a big event like this or the Super Bowl or something they come out of the woodwork.

Once again I ran into my Music City neighbor (though certainly not in the same neighborhood!) Ashley Judd. I was a bit surprised to see her as her husband, NASCAR driver Dario Franchitti is in the hospital with a broken ankle from a race accident this weekend. This is her part of the country though and she always makes the scenery look good when she is standing in it!

I saw another couple from Nashville here as well, Miley “Hanna Montana” Cyrus and her Dad, Billy Ray were hob nobbing around town. She wasn’t showing any skin as all of the tabloids and web blogs are talking about but you can bet that everywhere they went there were a bunch of “tween-agers” following her around. I think that Disney ought to start a show about a two year old race horse. With the publicity machine that they have, they could probably get him or her qualified for the Bluegrass Derby or Oaks just by the way they are able to make seemingly anyone top the popularity charts! Can’t you just see their filly MONA ARIZONA running dead last in the Oaks but all of the kids in the stands cheering her on! LOL

As the week goes on even more pop culture celebs will be showing up almost anywhere that there are photographers or parties and there is no short supply of either this week.

The big buzz this week though is the appearance of Brad Pitts and Angelina be-bopping around town together. I just happened to get a quick shot of them on the streets then they later invited me to a “little” get together of a couple of hundred they are having at the house that they rented for the week. Not to be a name dropper or anything…

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There are plenty of Sim celebrities here too. I was down at the track this morning and ran into OhioRacing of the Mr. Lucky’s Stables, owner of the Derby entry LUCKY’S MASH . This is his second trip in a row to the big race and he is every bit as excited as he was last year. He was eager to talk to me about his prized colt.

He told me that the name LUCKY’S MASH came from a favorite Television show that he used to watch years ago. He really feels that the colt has a decent chance as he has shown that he can run at 9.5 furlongs, and he doesn’t think that the extra real estate will be a problem at all for this light grey colt with the big heart. His trip to the winner’s circle in the WIN THE CROWD AND ROME WILL FOLLOW GI Stakes moved him into the top twenty and the countdown and training began for the big race. The owner heads up the Ohio Thoroughbred Racing Residency and you can bet the boys back at the Rez will be cheering for this horse.

The trainer worries about going up against the two trainers with multiple entries in the race thinking that they can use their horses together to control the pace but thinks that his colt is up to the task and is coming around at the right time. His biggest problem is controlling his excitement for the rest of the week looking forward to the race.

Speaking of multiple entries, I also ran into owner Shamran of the Shamran Stable who has two fillies running in the Bluegrass Oaks on Saturday. Both DEMONIC PRESENCE who is ranked fourth and also MINEES who is the fourteenth ranked filly run under his red and white silks. I asked him about his ladies and he told me,” Demonic Presence has been a bit of hit and miss since her World Cup win last year, but I’m hoping the easy stakes win she got in her last start in the SENORITA NOP DROP SPECIAL, has given her some confidence going into the big race. She still needs to improve her speed figures though, if she’s to have any chance of winning. She was my very first Grade I winner, in the sense that I watched her race about two minutes before my other World Cup winner EYE OF THE WORLD’s race.” LOL He went on, “My choice of VICTORY GALLUP as the sire was pure coincidence, since it was the best sire available for credits late in the week. I have recently bred another VICTORY GALLUP x MINESHAFT two year old (ANGELIC PRESENCE) from another mare I had, and she also won first time out, and is entered in her first stakes race this week, so who knows maybe I’ll have another shot at the Oaks next year with the same combo. LOL

He paused reflectively and went on, ”As for MINEES , that is a completely different story. She was bred for a competition in the EAAA Residency, where the race for the competition was a 5k maiden claimer, so I just wanted to use cheap sires that might still be able to produce decent runners, and WOW what a horse I got! Unfortunately, my dreams for her were shattered with her two abysmal runs in the VERMONT IS FOR LOVERS and the LOUISIANA OAKS, and at that time I decided that she wasn’t going to run this weekend in the Oaks. But after seeing how she strolled to victory in her last race, even though it was only a four horse Allowance race, I decided to race her anyway. After all it’s not that often you will have two starters in one of the big races, “ he chuckled. He gave his filly a pat on the shoulder and said, “We all know how hard it can be to find names for our horses, and with this one it was no different… so I looked around the room to get some inspiration, and had a biscuit from the pack beside me, and there it was… the name of the biscuits were Minees. The rest as they say, is history! I’m going to be plenty busy saddling to entries this week but I can hardly wait.

Someone else that I ran into was CVBear. I just wanted to point out how much I respect this owner who told me way back before the SAND CASTLE DERBY Lock that thirteenth ranked colt, JESUS WALKS would not be running in the Derby. It was thought that with his long range goal of running in the Memorial Day COSMOPOLITAN HANDICAP that the Derby Trial run last weekend would be a better fit even if he had won the Lock race. I just thought that it was great that this Stable owner let others know ahead of time that the qualified colt would not run and not keep some other owner on pins and needles wondering if his or her colt would get in. It was nice to see CVBear here anyway cheering on the others and just showed once again what a classy owner we have amongst us!

I don’t know about you but I can’t imagine not racing a horse that I had qualified for the Derby. With the many successes I’ve had in the Sim, I am still waiting for my first Derby entrant. Oh well, if I had one qualified I probably wouldn’t have time to attend all of these parties!! See ya’ll at Brad and Angelina’s!!

Good luck to all runners!

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