Kentucky Derby Trip Notes and Analysis

1. Nyquist – Perfect trip for him as expected breaking from the middle of the pack and having good early speed.  Basically was able to use his speed to get position on the turn, and stalked the fast pace of Danzing Candy.  Once the real running began he had a clean trip, and left them all in the dust.  With his early speed and relaxed demeanor he’ll most likely get clean trips every time.

2. Exaggerator – Incredible run this one made!  When coming from behind it’s always tough in the Kentucky Derby, but he came flying late.  Had to check to dodge a tiring Whitmore, but got a fairly clean run once he got away from him.  Had to come fairly wide, but showed a ton of athletic ability while flashing an awesome turn of foot.  He’s for real.

3. Gun Runner – Was able to workout a perfectly clean trip, but also was up closer to a hot pace than he normally would be.  I would say that was not the plan, but you can’t argue with the results as he turned for home in the Derby with the lead and looked like he might get the job done.  Admirable performanc for sure.

4. Mohaymen – Saved a lot of ground on both turns, and swung wide for the stretch run while putting in a solid effort.  Wouldn’t call it the perfect trip for him, but all things considered it was very good.  Probably ran as good as he could run.

5. Suddenbreakingnews – Brutal trip.  Had all kinds of trouble with horses coming in on him early in the race as his inside post draw caused him to get shuffled all the way back to second to last only leading the maiden Trojan Nation.   Came with a furious rally once he finally was able to run and probably proved to be the third best horse in the race.  With an outside draw who knows what would have happened but the 2 hole killed him here.  Terrible luck.

6. Destin – Uneventful trip as he just was pretty much one paced all the way around.  Stayed out of serious trouble, but was just unable to make up any ground during the stretch run.  He could have been short as he was making this start off of a two month layoff.

7. Brody’s Cause –  Had a wide journey for much of the way, but didn’t have much trouble other than that.  The wide post didn’t help, but if he probably was just a cut below the top bunch in this group anyway.

8. Mo Tom – No surprise as this horse had trouble in a race once again although this time he didn’t cause his own problems.  Creator bumped him hard, which put him in a bad position at the top of the stretch in between horses.  Still made a small run at the end, but a lot of momentum was killed with the trouble.

9. Lani – Broke slowly once again which ended up being his ultimate undoing in the race.  Did come with somewhat of a decent run late, but had to swing 8 wide to do it.  His best race is probably to sit a little closer to the pace, and perhaps in a normal race he’ll be able to do that.

10. Mor Spirit – Boring one paced horse…just like always.

11. My Man Sam – Had to check pretty sharply, and was involved in some rough stuff around the turn that may have cost him a few spots in the end.  Was never going to win, but his momentum was stopped enough to not give up on him just yet.

12. Tom’s Ready – Was able to secure some early position, but just had nothing left in the tank when the real running began.

13. Creator – Santana tried to make his way outside on the turn by pushing other horses out of the way,  and he paid for it as Creator was nearly spun sideways.  He never could regain momentum after a ride that got him in a tremendous amount of trouble as he just sort of quit running.  Hopefully better days lie ahead for him.

14. Outwork – Somewhat stalked a hot pace and folded badly.  Wasn’t able to get close to Danzing Candy and press for the lead early on which was surprising.

15. Danzing Candy – Set the pace and basically went too fast and faded to this spot.

16. Trojan Nation – Fell all the way back to 20th and never threatened from there.

17. Oscar Nominated – Was bumped and had to be steadied at the quarter pole, but was never going to make a sustained run at the leaders.

18. Majesto – Sat mid pack while keeping wide and just backed up when the real running began.

19. Whitmore – Secured a decent position for most of the race while sitting closer to the pace than normal this time, but was empty when turning for home.

20. Shagaf – Pulled up and walked off in what looked like a precautionary measure.