{"id":36199,"date":"2016-05-05T12:20:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T16:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=36199"},"modified":"2016-05-25T10:19:34","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T14:19:34","slug":"bluegrass-derby-the-road-ends-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=36199","title":{"rendered":"Bluegrass Derby: The Road Ends Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOUISVILLE \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament has been won eight times by Kentucky and another three by Louisville.\u00a0 The Road to the Final Four\u2019s similarity to the Road to the Bluegrass Derby is profound.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first four months of a college basketball season eliminate around 80% of the 347 Division I teams from contention for the national championship.\u00a0 The remaining 68 are thrown into the hottest of crucibles \u2013 a three-week knock-out tournament in which one misstep can mean the end of the road.\u00a0 Even for the best teams, no more than two of six games can be considered cake walks.\u00a0 Teams are just one bad performance (or an injury) away from falling by the way side.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Road to the Bluegrass Derby is no different, although when a horse enters the starting gate in an attempt to survive and advance, he faces 13 foes instead of just one.\u00a0 His (or her) charge is not to best 346 other teams but a foal crop of over 25,000.\u00a0 It is a daunting task.\u00a0 Only twenty charmed three year-olds per crop make the starting gate of the Bluegrass Derby.\u00a0 For many of them, successfully navigating this treacherous road will be their greatest-ever achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At a cursory glance, the idea that the Road to the Bluegrass Derby contains a \u201cwin or go home\u201d knock-out component seems a bit daft.\u00a0 After all, a horse can endure all sorts of losses en route to the Bluegrass Derby \u2013 top contender Double Dissolution <\/b>was one-for-six as a juvenile! \u2013 while the Road to the Final Four is unforgiving.\u00a0 But the bracketesque nature of the Sim is very real.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Look at the field for this year\u2019s Bluegrass Derby.\u00a0 Almost all of them got into the field by finishing first or second in one of the seven \u201cDerby Lock\u201d prep races \u2013 the Grade I All Saints Derby<\/i>, Sand Castle Derby<\/i>, Corkscrew S.<\/i>, Wooden Indian<\/i>, Florida Derby<\/i>, California Derby, <\/i>or the Arkansas Juvenile<\/i>.\u00a0 In many ways, these races acted as single-elimination contests for Derby hopefuls.\u00a0 A horse didn\u2019t necessarily have to win to move on \u2013 second place is usually good enough \u2013 but a poor performance in a Derby Lock race often marked the end of the line.\u00a0 The scheduling of the Derby Lock races usually meant that only one shot was offered; of the hopefuls for this field, only Tap to Bluff and Papa\u2019s Ghost Ted appeared in more than one Derby Lock race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are routes to the Derby distinct from an exacta in the Derby Lock races.\u00a0 Think of them as \u201cat-large\u201d berths.\u00a0 Juvenile champ Deadmoney Cadet<\/b> has been locked into this field since the Breeders\u2019 Bowl<\/i>, his recent form reversal notwithstanding.\u00a0 Lion\u2019s Slew <\/b>is going to get into the field on the back of a Grade I win in Vermont in February and some juvenile sprint wins in spite of an abject performance in the All Saints Derby<\/i>.\u00a0 Blank Space<\/b> (California Derby<\/i>) and Lightning Strife <\/b>(Corkscrew<\/i>) have parlayed third place finishes in Derby Lock races plus previous graded stakes glory into Derby tickets.\u00a0 Cal-bred Cinderella Papa\u2019s Ghost Ted<\/b> ran third in Dubai but seventh in the Corkscrew<\/i> and is on the bubble.\u00a0 Gold Sensation <\/b>and Mount Midoriyama <\/b>ran one-two in a Grade I race on Sunday <\/i>and are entered back in six days!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By and large, however, seven races run over the course of just four weeks hold the entries to the Bluegrass Derby; the Derby \u201cLocks\u201d are actually the Derby \u201cKeys.\u201d\u00a0 You need one to unlock a stall in the Stakes Barn in Louisville.\u00a0 Just 98 horses may enter those prep races, and the fields are always over-subscribed.\u00a0 It is when one looks at those exclusive races, then, and point system used to determine who gets into that \u201cbracket\u201d that one realizes the true nature of the Bluegrass Derby\u2019s long and cruel knockout format.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those points are derived from performance in earlier graded stakes races such as the G2 Fountain of Ute<\/i>, the G3 Dubai 2000 Guineas<\/i>, the G3 Gary Asher<\/i>, the Alou Brothers\u2019 races, and so on.\u00a0 Those races are themselves generally over-subscribed, and rely on previous (over-subscribed) stakes races which rely on allowance results for their entries, and so on and so on.\u00a0 There are exceptions, of course, but the need to accumulate entry points is profound.\u00a0 It\u2019s no wonder trainers start pushing two year-olds into stakes races as early as a year before the Bluegrass Derby or three year-olds into Grade I \u201clast chance\u201d qualifiers six days before the big event.\u00a0 There\u2019s not One Shining Moment to waste.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOUISVILLE \u2013 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament has been won eight times by Kentucky and another three by Louisville.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36199"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36422,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36199\/revisions\/36422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}