Kentucky Horse Betting Derby

As expected, the names of 20 colts and geldings were dropped into the entry box for Saturday's $2-million Kentucky Derby (gr. I) at Churchill Downs. The connections of Bandini will be the first to pick a post position, while the connections of Buzzards Bay will go last. Post positions will be selected at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The process will be covered live on ESPN Sportscenter. The order of selection was determined Wednesday morning in the Churchill Downs racing office when entries for the Derby were taken. Here's the order of post selection for the 3-year-olds entered in the Derby: Bandini (John Velazquez)Afleet Alex (Jeremy Rose)Greeley's Galaxy (Kent Desormeaux)Flower Alley (Jorge Chavez)High Limit (Ramon Dominguez)Giacomo (Mike Smith)Noble Causeway (Gary Stevens)Wilko (Corey Nakatani)Greater Good (John McKee)Bellamy Road (Javier Castellano)Andromeda's Hero (Rafael Bejarano)Spanish Chestnut (Joe Bravo)High Fly (Jerry Bailey)Don't Get Mad (Tyler Baze)Coin Silver (Pat Valenzuela)Sun King (Edgar Prado)Closing Argument (Cornelio Velasquez)Sort It Out (Brice Blanc)Going Wild (Jose Valdivia Jr.)Buzzards Bay (Mark Guidry) Trainer Nick Zito has the most Derby entrants with five. They are, in post-selection order, Noble Causeway (seventh), Bellamy Road (10th), Andromeda's Hero (11th), High Fly (13th), and Sun King (16th).

"Come on six! Stay up you three! Get out of there 12! Where's the four? Who's that?"
These may sound like the common shouts of an overzealous, exotics-playing railbird, but on Saturday, it just might be something you hear from as esteemed a place as the Churchill Downs box of New York-born trainer Nick Zito.
The man--whose enthusiasm led him to exclaim "I love you God, I love you America, I love you everybody" on national television after one of his two Kentucky Derby (gr. I) wins--has plenty of love to go around these days. He is set to send five horses to post in this year's 131st running, making for an enviable embarrassment of riches among colleagues, and an interesting series of ethical questions for first-year law students.
What virtually writes the story line for the media-credentialed poses a huge challenge for the trainer. With Andromeda's Hero, High Fly, Noble Causeway, Sun King--and likely post time favorite Bellamy Road--Zito will saddle up a full quarter of a potential 20-horse field, for as many different owners. Only D. Wayne Lukas, in 1996, accomplished a similar feat. In that year, his Grindstone finished a winner and his Prince of Thieves finished third. Editor's Note (sixth), Victory Speech (10th), and Honour and Glory (18th) were further up the track.
Lukas will start Bob and Beverly Lewis' Going Wild in 2005 and was scheduled to send out their Consolidator until a fractured sesmoid in a Monday morning workout sent the chestnut colt into early retirement.
"The Lewises and I have been very blessed in this race so you're not going hear us do any complaining about losing Consolidator," said Lukas. "But having more horses here makes you feel better, Hell, I wish I had three. People always ask me if it gives you any more pressure, but I always tell them the stress comes from watching the other guy have three."
Lukas has twice started three horses in the Derby. In 2000, he was shut out when Exchange Rate (12th), High Yield (15th), and Commendable (17th) failed to fire. In 1995, though, he found major success when Thunder Gulch powered home for the win, and Timber Country got up for third. Filly Serena's Song finished 16th.
"That year I actually thought Timber Country had a better chance to win," said the four-time Derby winner. Lukas has saddled a Derby record 41 runners spanning from 1981-2003. He was on the board with 10, and unplaced in 31 of those. His closest competitor in that category is fellow four-time winner H. J. "Dick" Thompson with 24.
As for trainers with entrants in 2005, Zito has started 14 (2 winners, six other on the board); Bob Baffert, who trains Sort It Out, has sent out 13 students since 1996-2003 (three winners and three others on the board). Baffert sent out three runners in 1999 and fared best that year with Prime Timber who ran fourth.
Bobby Frankel (High Limit) has hit the board with three of his seven career starters, most recently second and third with Empire Maker and Peace Rules, respectively, in 2003, and 12th last year with Master David.
Todd Pletcher, who will send Bandini, Flower Alley, and Coin Silver, saddled four entrants in the 2000 Derby and understands owner's expectations as well as anyone. His best that year, Impeachment, finished third, and More Than Ready missed fourth. Trippi (11th), and Graeme Hall (19th) also ran.
"I'll saddle them all personally, but I don't like to sit too close to an owner on any race day, let alone the Kentucky Derby," said Pletcher.
Zito, who will personally saddle all five horses and then sit "all alone," is constantly questioned about dueling loyalty and owner juggling.
"It's a situation where the owners understand that it happens," said Zito of his loaded 3-year-old barn. "I always say that life is a game of people. Fortunately, I am working for some great people and so far no egos have gotten in the way. It's really worked out well. They all realize that it's hard just getting to the Derby and everything else after that is just a plus."
As for the pressure, Zito echoed Lukas' sentiments. "Right now this is good pressure. I always tell the story about Seattle Slew's trainer Billy Turner, who said 'the pressure is on you worse when you don't have Seattle Slew.' And it will never happen again, especially with five different entities.
"And I told my wife Kim that this will be the most memorable Derby we've ever had. It's been 15 years since I brought my first horse (Thirty Six Red-9th) and now we've got five and there are even horses here--Greeley's Galaxy, by Mr. Greeley, and Don't Get Mad, by Steven Got Even--whose fathers I trained, said Zito in his daily morning briefing to an overflow crowd assembled outside a makeshift barrier of PVC plastic.
"And I can guarantee you there won't be a fence up next year."
Zito is also philosophical about the likelihood of failure, with at least a few of his employers in the best of scenarios.
"Of course if you're a competitor you want to win, but I'd have to be a joke to feel anything but blessed, humbled and satisfied. If I'm a human being I have to ask, 'do I want everything in life?'"

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin got almost what he wanted Monday morning from his Kentucky Derby (gr. I) charge Closing Argument. "We're looking for five-eighths in 1:01. He's not a fast work horse."What he got was 1:01 3/5 from the official clocker and had 1:01 2/5 by his own hand. "He went very well," said the Lexington, Ky.-born conditioner who is saddling his first Derby contender. "He was a little keen early but it is still what we were looking for, and since I learned from D. Wayne Lukas, I'll say it was 'perfect.'" Shortly after the 8:30 a.m. maintenance break, and under regular exercise rider Danny Wright, the Successful Appeal colt got another good look at the Churchill Downs track that he first spied in a Sunday gallop over 1 3/8 miles. McLaughlin has tapped primary rider Cornelio Velasquez for the trip on Saturday. Owned by Philip and Marcia Cohen, and bred in Florida by France and Irwin J. Weiner, Closing Argument's last start resulted in a third-place finish in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I). Closing Argument worked once at Keeneland after that race, breezing a half-mile in :49.20 last Monday. "We had an 80-day layoff after the (Feb. 5) Holy Bull (gr. III) since we had to miss the Florida Derby (gr. I)," said the trainer of his colt who missed the signature Gulfstream Park event due to a bruised foot. "He looks like he's improving nicely into Saturday." McLaughlin said he expects his colt to get away well early in the crowded Derby field. "He usually breaks well and he likes to lay close. We'll probably have to shuffle back in the pack with Spanish Chestnut in the race up front. The draw will be important for us -- hopefully we'll get four, five, six, or seven." McLaughlin said being at his first Kentucky Derby is "like living my dream. Since I was 12 years old I wanted to train horses. I worked with Wayne Lukas for seven years so I have a little experience here, but it's nice to be saddling one on my own. Maybe one day I'll have the problem Todd (Pletcher) has with a hundred reporters around him. That might be a nice feeling." McLaughlin said the schedule the rest of the week for his coppery bay colt would be to walk the shed row on Tuesday, gallop 1 3/8 miles Wednesday, Thusrday, and Friday, and then walk again on race day.

After Martin Pipe's nailbiting victory in the 2004/5 National Hunt trainers' championship, bookies disagree over who should be favourite next season. Pipe pipped arch-rival Paul Nicholls on the final day of the campaign - but Kentucky Derby give the nod to Nicholls in 2005/6. They bet 10/11 Nicholls, 11/10 Pipe whereas Hills have them the other way round. And Hills' spokesman David Hood believes there could yet be a surprise from either 8/1 chance Jonjo O'Neill or Howard Johnson at 14s. Hood said: "Jonjo had a season he will want to forget and could bounce back with champion jockey Tony McCoy at his side, whilst Howard Johnson really put himself in the top bracket with his big race successes. "Obviously Pipe and Nicholls have the proven track record and have battled it out for a few seasons now, but the crown has to change at some point and I don't necessarily think that Nicholls will be considered the automatic successor by all punters on the kentucky derby betting

Trainer Nick Zito leads all trainers this year with five candidates for the Kentucky Derby (gr. I), including the likely favorite Bellamy Road. But what about the Todd Squad? Todd Pletcher has a trio of talented runners: Bandini, Coin Silver, and Flower Alley. "Obviously, we've got their works coming up, which will be the most important part of the equation as far as the training goes, but at this point I'm very happy with where we are," said Pletcher, who has sent out nine previous Derby starters, including 2001 runner-up Invisible Ink and 2000 third finisher Impeachment. Pletcher also discussed his three 2005 Derby prospects on an individual basis. Here's what he had to say about their running styles: Bandini, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) and second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II). "To me, he's a perfect kind of horse to ride because he's not going to let anybody steal anything and yet, if they're flying, he can sit back as far as he needs to. He's versatile that way. He's tractable. You can kind of place him where you want, and he's got enough tactical speed away from there to maybe get you out of some situations if you need to. Yet, if you need to bring him back to you a little bit after you get him started, he's kind enough to do that." Coin Silver, winner of the Lexington Stakes (gr .II). "I'll go back to the old thing everybody else says: These 3-year-olds transform quickly this time of year. What we've got to hope is that the change in tactics, getting him off the pace, is what made the difference (in the Lexington). That it wasn't just the sloppy track. Or that we get a sloppy track for him in the Derby. He's not a colt that when you look at his p.p.s or his numbers you say, 'Wow. This horse was beaten 30 lengths, 40 lengths and now all of a sudden ...' He's always been knocking on the door, on the verge of stepping into that next level. Hopefully, the change in tactics, getting him off the pace a little bit, was what made that little improvement that we were looking for." Flower Alley, winner of the Lane's End Stakes (gr. II) and second in the Arkansas Derby (gr. II). "I think in order for him to succeed, he needs to be farther back than he's been. Maybe the blinkers are going to take care of this, but he's still a pretty green colt. I think what's happened in the last couple of spots is that he's broken, put himself in a good position, and then, because he's a little bit green, he starts looking around. He gets a little bit of dirt in his face and he starts to back up, so (jockey Jorge) Chavez has been 'no, you can't back up now, I need to you to stay here.' I think in this race (the Derby) we need to let him back up a little bit. If he wants to back up into 12th, 14th, whatever it is, let him back up. Let him get comfortable and then make a run. We can't chase them for a mile and a quarter. We've got to let him settle and make his run, so I'm hoping that the blinkers take away a little bit of that and maybe keep him focussed enough so that Chavez can leave him alone and he'll lay in the middle of the pack. But I don't want him (Chavez) knuckling him at the five-eighths pole like he was in the Arkansas Derby because you just can't make that long of a run." Pletcher also addressed Bandini's performance in the Blue Grass Stakes and some people's contention that Spanish Chestnut acted as a rabbit, setting it up the race perfectly for the son of Fusaichi Pegasus. "Bandini doesn't necessarily need a rabbit," Pletcher claimed. "Patrick Biancone trains Spanish Chestnut, and if he decides to run him in the Derby, then that's what they're going to do. The horse's last two races haven't been great, but prior to that, he was one of the leading candidates on the West Coast. So, if you look at it that way, he's got every much as right to be in there as Going Wild or some of the other horses whose last couple of races haven't been good. Everybody made a big deal after the Blue Grass: 'Oh Bandini didn't run as good as everybody said because Spanish Chestnut was in there as a rabbit.' Well, he was a rabbit for the whole field. He cleared the field. High Fly got a perfect stalking trip right off of him, which they said before the race they wanted to do, and had absolutely no excuse. We were parked three wide on both turns and ran by everybody and now they're saying, 'Oh, the Blue Grass wasn't a good race, Keeneland's a bad racetrack, and I didn't want to win the Blue Grass anyway.' Geez. There have been a lot of horses that haven't necessarily won the Blue Grass that come back to win the Derby, but I wouldn't think too many of them were beaten double-digit lengths." Pletcher also talked about how he thought the Derby would be run in general. "I think Bellamy Road, Spanish Chestnut if he goes (will be in front), and Consolidator is going to want to be part of the pace," the trainer said. "I think you're going to see a low :46 half – a :46.18.

In the world of horse racing, the two towns might as well be 10,000 miles apart.In Louisville horse racing is life. People live for it. It dominates daily conversation. The countless number of thoroughbred horse farms in and around the rural farmland can testify to that.In Royersford, horse racing is an afterthought. If you love it, you are in the minority. But on Thursday, Louisville and the world of horse racing inexplicably crossed paths with Royersford - thanks to an incredible 3-year-old colt named Afleet Alex.One year removed from the Smarty Jones mania that swept the Philadelphia area, there is another local horse that's ready to take us by storm. Only this time, the local connections are a lot closer.Bob Brittingham is one of the majority owners of Afleet Alex, a horse that next Saturday will likely be the favorite in the 131st running of the Kentucky Derby. Brittingham's wife, Terese, is the owner of Keller Williams Realty Group in Royersford.Thursday at Keller Williams about 50 of the Brittinghams' co-workers, family and friends threw an Afleet Alex pep rally. They were all there to root on the horse that for the second straight year has made Philadelphia the center of the horse racing world."The pep rally was a nice surprise to us", said Bob Brittingham, who lives in Collegeville and is one of the five owners, all from the Philadelphia area. "The people in the office have showed great support for us and its fun when you can have so many to share it with."I don't think anyone expected this to come out of Collegeville - maybe a Revolutionary War story or something, but not a Kentucky Derby horse. It's really special."Brittingham and his partners call their horse racing partnership Cash Is King Stables. Last April they purchased Afleet Alex for $75,000. Their trainer, Tim Ritchey, who is based out of Delaware Park, advised the partnership to buy Afleet Alex because, "he liked the way he moved." At that time, nobody had any clue that the son of Northern Afleet would be this good.Afleet Alex went on to win his first two races at Delaware Park in eyebrow-raising fashion. He won the first race by 11 1/4 lengths. The second by 12 lengths. After that, the speedy colt went up to Saratoga, N.Y, and won two more races, including the Sanford Stakes in record-setting time.By that time, the owners knew they had something."We were thinking about the Derby by then," admitted Brittingham, 42, who graduated from Neshaminy High. But it wasn't until April 19 that the dream of having a horse in the Kentucky Derby became a reality. On that day, at Oaklawn Park, Afleet Alex destroyed the field in the Arkansas Derby, winning by a race-record eight lengths, and solidifying him as one of the best horses in the country.It was Afleet Alex's sixth win in nine races. To date, he has earned Cash Is King over $1.3 million. By the time they sell the breeding rights, he will fetch them tens of millions of dollars more.But right now, the Brittinghams, who leave for Louisville Saturday, are not thinking about money."I'm going down there with the attitude that I'm a tourist, not an owner," Brittingham said. "I am a horse racing fan and there is a lot I want to see. I'm just going to enjoy everything. I want to see other people's horses as much as they want to see ours."

When horses from the Todd Pletcher barn go to the track at Churchill Downs for morning workouts, one exercise rider attracts more attention than the others. Observers know his face but often ask themselves, "Is that Angel?" The answer is yes, Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. is exercising horses for Pletcher, the Eclipse Award winning trainer of 2004 who has three Kentucky Derby (gr. I) contenders -- Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) winner Bandini, Lexington Stakes (gr. II) winner Coin Silver, and Lane's End Stakes (gr. II) winner Flower Alley. Cordero, 62, retired in the early 1990s after riding more than 7,000 winners. He won the Derby three times -- in 1974 with Cannonade, in 1976 with Bold Forbes, and in 1985 with Spend as Buck. Cordero is now the agent for jockey John Velazquez, the number one rider for Pletcher. A Puerto Rico native, Velazquez was brought to the U.S. by Cordero and last year was the leading rider by earnings and also was voted an Eclipse Award. To avoid any conflicts between his vocation as a jock's agent and his avocation as an exercise rider, Cordero is officially on vacation and has taken leave of booking mounts for Velazquez. To prepare for his one-month stint with Pletcher, Cordero lined up mounts for Velazquez in advance and has other agents enter the horses that his client will ride. While he had been exercising horses for Pletcher in Florida, Cordero specifically wanted to be with the stable in Kentucky leading up to the Derby. Working at Pletcher's barn, both as exercise rider and all around helper, keeps Cordero fit and fills a void that existed when he retired from riding. Noting that his spleen has been removed, Cordero explained that his body's immune system causes him to catch colds easily. After spending two Christmases in the hospital due to colds, Cordero decided to upgrade his fitness, thus the return to exercising horses in the mornings. "Since I have started exercising horses, I get a cold and I take something for it," just like everyone else. As exercise rider, Cordero is in a good position to observe how Pletcher's horses are coming into the Derby. "The three of them are doing very good," Cordero said. "They are peaking, and I am not saying that because I work with them. They are very happy and fit because t hey have been running since January." As experienced as he is with horses, Cordero realizes t he unknown equation in the Derby is the race's unique 1 1/4-mile distance. "The question about all these horses is whether they can go a mile and a quarter," Cordero said. "But we don't breed horses to go a mile and a quarter. We breed horses to go a mile. You never know which ones will get a mile and a quarter. There have been some good horses who did not win the Derby and there have been some horses who won the Derby that you never heard from again." Cordero, who had a brief fling with training before he turned jockey agent after his retirement from the saddle, knows his place within the Pletcher organization. "We talk about race riding and jockeys, and he likes to hear my stories from some of the horses I rode in the past, but I leave the training to him," says Cordero, who accompanied Pletcher to Keeneland for the afternoon races during that meet. The retired jockey holds Pletcher, a former assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, in high esteem. "Everybody is good in his own way, so it is hard to compare trainers. But Woody Stephens, Charlie Whittingham, Laz Barrera -- he's up there with them because of how much he has accomplished in such a short period of time. Everybody says 'well, he gets the best horses.' You work your way into the horses. You have to work into the good horses. They don't give them to you because you are good looking." Noting that when he first started representing Velazquez he took the young rider to Pletcher's barn to get some work. "I knew Todd when he worked for Wayne and I rode for Wayne. I took Johnny to the barn and told Todd, 'Some day you are going to be the champion trainer and I want you to have a champion jockey'. Little by little we worked our way in there. We ride 95% of his horses now. That is the way you get to the top. If he was already a name trainer it would have been harder to get on his horses. But we were there from the beginning. The combination just started to work." On May 7, Cordero said he will be rooting for any of Pletcher's horses to win the Derby, not just Bandini, who will be ridden by Velazquez. "When you spend this much time with the horses, they become like friends," Cordero said. "I told him (Pletcher) that if I don't win it for him, I would still like to see him win the Derby." And on May 8, Cordero's "vacation" will be over.

Two of the five horses trainer Nick Zito is pointing toward the May 7 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) were on the track Thursday and the conditioner was pleased with how both 3-year-olds breezed. Before the maintenance break, Tracy Farmer's Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) winner Sun King went five furlongs in 1:00, working in company with Indy Storm and Chief Commander. After the break, Robert LaPenta's Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Andromeda's Hero drilled five furlongs in 1:01 4/5. "I thought he went very, very well," Zito said of Sun King, a son of Charismatic who has won three of seven lifetime starts. "The track was not fast. It was a little heavier earlier so that was a pretty good work." The time was second-fastest of 35 horses working the distance Thursday. Zito said he worked Sun King in company with two stablemates because "sometimes you work a horse psychologically. What we're trying to do is psychologically get into his head. You know, it's a mental thing." The trainer said the colt appeared "mad" following a fourth-place finish in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I). "Sometimes things don't go your way and it certainly wasn't Sun King's fault," Zito said of the Blue Grass outcome. "We always thought he was mad after the Blue Grass. For instance, he was attacking his hay, just grabbing his hay, like he was so mad..." Of Andromeda's Hero, Zito said the Fusaichi Pegasus colt "worked extremely well because all I wanted was the last part. He's a horse that looks like he's getting better. He's a horse that definitely looks like he can get the trip..."