The Kentucky Derby.

Without a spec of Mud on them.... You should see the horses behind them!

 

Damn that was a hell of a race! Rode that horse to perfection.

 

Smith is a class act and on the PERFECT mount. Justify broke it from the gate and never relented. Put it on cruise control and showed the field he's not just a "short-tracker" but the ultimate all around racer. Gorgeous horse...great race.

 

I gotta admit - helluva a run for that horse.

I was skeptical: long track, dry conditions, tired horse, bad gate draw . . . . It all seemed perfect to spoil a Triple Crown bid. But, he broke fast, never was headed and never tired. A great run.

But, enough of Bob Baffert . . . .

Cheers,

dave

 

I've never been into horse racing, but I admit I watched this past weekend. That horse is IMPRESSIVE. When everyone else had started pushing their horse, he was still taking it easy. He didn't put it into high gear until that last tenth of a mile. Dang. I gotta say though, Gronkowski coming from next to last to second? Did anyone even see that after paying attention to Justify the whole time? That horse totally wrecked a lot of people's bets!!!!

 

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1467920744000770057

 

Front page news here.

 

Looks like they got the "cocktail" wrong. I mean the horse must have had a defect in the lungs or heart.

 

Netflix's Bad Sport, episode 5.

 

All people who "juice" horses should die in a fire...that includes fucking Baffert too.

 

So my favorite hockey player of all time has a horse named after him at the Derby and he's there. The Karma is too strong. My daughter's there so I told her to put $100 on the nose. Going off at 7-1 right now. Get em Messier!

 

U mean Gretzky?

 

Gretzky would have been a middling player without Mess carrying him on his back. Gretz even said that (and I love Gretzky too)

 

Take off, hoser!!!

 

I may have asked before during a prior appearance of this thread but at what age do horses peak? It's my understanding that all the Derby horses are about the same age, 2-3. First, is there a particular reason for that? And secondly, if it's not because that's their peak, during what age range are the usually fastest and do they race at that age if they're not retired to bang?

 

A Derby horse must be 3 years old. About 4 1/2 years is their peak performance.

Oh, and 3 years old is for two reasons; tradition, and it levels the playing field.

My daughter is working at the Derby. Longines is paying her to wear their watches. How she gets these gigs is beyond me.

 

So in other words, no LW vs HW racing??

 

How does it level the playing field compared to racing all four-year-olds?

 

The tradition of them being three year olds was set in 1875, so that's what it's been for close to 150 years. Simply what they selected back then.

 

I was curious about this too and searched around a bit. Best thing I found was on Slate.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/06/why-do-3-year-olds-rule-the-triple-crown.html

A race with 2-year-olds would be the equine equivalent of watching a junior-varsity basketball game; a race consisting of 4-year-olds would be something of a snooze,
because by that time it would be clear which horses were great and which were lackluster. On the other hand, 3-year olds guarantee both viewing and wagering excitement,
they’re old enough to burn up the track, but raw enough to add the element of uncertainty that makes gambling worthwhile.

The English horse owners who first established these races may have also had selfish reasons for instituting the limit. Some racing horses get worn down after they turn 3
and never race as 4-year-olds; the English horsey set wanted to ensure that their prize thoroughbreds got a chance on the track.

The horses that do soldier onward, however, tend to run faster than their younger counterparts, at least early in the racing season, when the 3-year-olds are still maturing
and gaining their competitive sea legs. The early fall marks the first time that 3-year-olds compete against 4-year-olds, most notably in the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Classic.
To level the playing field, the Classic’s rules mandates that horses of differing ages be assigned different handicapping weights—3-year-olds are saddled with 122 pounds,
while 4-year-olds are weighted down with 126 pounds. Still, 3-year-olds have won fewer than half the Breeders’ Cup Classics that have ever been run.