Derby Day

Key Dear and I were on the phone and made our Kentucky Derby picks. She was having an unreal day picking winners race after race. Neither of us thought anyone would beat Big Brown, but as he was the favorite (therefore not a good bet) and favorites have only won three times since 1980, we each chose three other horses. Key Dear went with Court Vision, Visionaire and Smooth Air. I chose Eight Belles, Visionaire and Gayego. Overall, Key Dear did better than I did. Her horses finished 11th, 12th and 13th. Mine finished 2nd, 12th and 17th, but poor Eight Belles, who finished a strong second to Big Brown, broke both front ankles after the finish and was euthanised on the track.

Horse sports are having a very bad year. Several eventing horses have died in the past year, along with a couple riders. Others have been seriously injured. While eventing is getting crazy difficult with higher/bigger/longer and immovable hurdles, at least horseracing is trying to do something to help reduce injuries by changing over many track surfaces to polytrack.