This might be my second to last post ever. I mean EVER. Might do one more after Derby. We'll see. Here is what I know:
This year's version of Road to the Roses is awful. Churchill Downs has stripped it down to a meaningless and boring exhibition. Maybe it will be like it used to be next year? I won't hold my breath.
I'm sitting on 280 points and rank 23rd with my stable. What does that mean? I have no freakin' idea.
Many of you were shut out of setting a stable because the timeline to start one was short and it was a bit confusing this year. I don't really think you are missing out on anything.
Please still contribute to Old Friends. If we somehow still raise $100 that would be great.
After Derby maybe we just e-mail/tweet how many points we earned and declare a winner that way? Whatever.
Goldencents is my Derby horse. I'm not even going to look at the Racing Form this year. Boom.
Let's go out on a great song, covered by great band, in front of a great audience. Enjoy Derby.
Apparently there is no way to start a league. I can't even find a way to find a compiled leader board. Also, I have nothing beside my point tally (though I know it's zero and nothing telling me where I rank). Nice.
In related news, I have changed my mind on this revamp of the Road to the Roses. I'm not liking anything about it. If anybody has any good ideas let me know.
Orb looked good taking the Florida Derby. Lines of Battle also looked the same in UAE Derby. Nothing really stood out for me in either race.
Loved the grit of Revolutionary in the Louisiana Derby. Lots of traffic issues for horses so I don't know what to make of some of those behind. I had Palace Malice and he had significant trouble.
Continue to donate to Old Friends even without our beloved league.
Other News:
Animal Kingdom was very impressive in the World Cup Classic. I love the Dubai World Cup. The whole card is amazing and exciting. They put on a great show there.
D. Wayne Lukas, Calumet Farm, Gary Stevens, Shug McGaughey, Phipps Stables are all prominent in this year's prep races. Is it the 1980s?
I did not see the Kevin Ware injury. I did not watch any replay and never will watch it. I didn't watch the Nerlens Noel injury and never will. I don't watch replays of horse or jockey injuries. Really not a fan of replaying such events.
Your song of the day is Little Fluffy Clouds by Orb. I've always loved this track. Let's go to Sparks! I just dated myself.
Make sure you create your stable by Thursday night. This year there is not late registering as it's a new format and a shortened season.
I just created my stable and it appears as if there is no way to form a league. I'll keep investigating, but so far I haven't found any glimmers of hope. If this is the case, that's not good for us. I really enjoyed having our own league. It made things a bit more fun and helped us keep up with our donations to Old Friends.
If the above is indeed true we have have to get creative on how to create a makeshift league and track who is in, how much money we raise, who wins, etc. My guess is an Excel Spreadsheet will be involved. Welcome to rotisserie league 1995.
At any rate please sign up a stable and make a donation to Old Friends. Thanks to everyone who has already donated. We are off to a good start this year.
I probably won't preview nor post the entries for races this year since we don't need to set our stables. But I'll try to have everyone's favorite Monday Morning Hot Walk posts.
Songs will be involved with posts. Might go with a race tie-in, but am thinking of just posting songs/videos that are pure joy as Derby is pure joy.
How about the Go-Go's live in concert in 1981 at a high school gym in Los Angeles playing an early version of 'Vacation'? Pure joy.
So if you haven't heard yet, the Road to the Roses site has been updated. You can now go in and set your stable. You have until March 28th to do so. The first races are March 30th (Florida Derby, UAE Derby, and Louisiana Derby). Setting up your stable is very easy this year. I don't think it could be much more user-friendly. Let's limit one stable per participant.
I will set my stable sometime this week. After I do I will set the league up and send out the code information so you can join. I'll try to get that our early, but I could get start over-analyzing my picks and it might take until the 28th. At any rate, if you don't join the league by the first races it's fine. The points you earn from your stable will still count.
AND REMEMBER: This is a charitable fundraising league. We play for a purpose and it's Old Friends Equine. It's easy to donate the suggested 'league fee' of $10 on the right side of this blog. Someone donated within day of me posting the new donation widget. Thank you!
Let me know if you have any question along the way. Feel free invite a friend to join us. It's all for a good cause. Have fun setting your stables.
And we're back. Happy Derby Season everyone! I was a little anxious there for a while that this year's Road to the Roses was not going to happen. When they finally announced it I was initially frustrated about the shortened timeline. However, after reading the setup I think it will be good. Though I liked the old season as it kept me engaged with prep races for longer time, (I can only name 2-3 offhand this year) it was also a bit unwieldy. There were so many horses to consider, supplemental drafts, power horses, etc. By the time we made it to the big prep races there were numerous 'contenders' that had turned out to be pretenders and were never heard from again. With this shortened season we'll be focusing only on the major and final prep races and have smaller stables to work with. It should keep the casual fan engaged so they will know all the key horses and prep races while also providing a challenge in selecting horses for fantasy stable nerds.
The Road to the Roses website will be updated and ready on Friday March 22nd and the first races will be on Saturday March 30th. Our league information will soon be available in the top right corner of this blog (right after I set my winning stable). I'll let you know when it's up. We will again be playing for charity. Our dedicated charity is Old Friends Equine, a thoroughbred retirement farm in Kentucky. Check out their website and make sure you submit your 'league fee'/donation of $10 via the widget on the right side of this blog. It will take a couple minutes to donate and all proceeds go directly to Old Friends. I will set up our definitive donation goal after we know how many people we have in our league.
If you know of other people who would like to join please pass the word. More participants equals more fun (or something like that) and it all supports a good cause. As always, feel free to chat it up via the comments on blog posts or through Twitter. You can check out my Twitter feed on the left. What, you aren't on Twitter yet? Facebook is soooooo 2010.
So get ready to set your stables, be on the look out for upcoming league info, make your donation, and let's get some chatter going about this Derby season. Happy Derby!
Congratulations to ULhothot for winning this year's edition of the Old Friends League. As a rookie he took an early lead months ago and never looked back. I'm guessing he's hooked and will join us again next year.
Thanks to everyone who donated to our charitable cause. We actually exceeded our goal. Nice.
Hope everyone had a great Derby. We again our annual party out here in the City of Roses and it was loads of fun.
I look forward to the league again next year. Till then...
Have fun getting the party started with Oaks. We reached our donation goal. Thanks to everyone who donated. Have a great weekend. I'll do a league recap early next week. Until then...Happy Derby!
138th Running of the Kentucky Derby $2,219,600 (gr. I, Race 11, 6:24 p.m.), 3YO, 1 1/4 Miles (Dirt) PP. Horse, Jockey, Weight, Trainer, Odds
1. Daddy Long Legs (KY), C O'Donoghue, 126, A P O'Brien, 30/1
2. Optimizer (KY), J K Court, 126, D W Lukas, 50/1
3. Take Charge Indy (KY), C H Borel, 126, P B Byrne, 15/1
4. Union Rags (KY), J R Leparoux, 126, M R Matz, 9/2
5. Dullahan (KY), K J Desormeaux, 126, D L Romans, 8/1
6. Bodemeister (VA), M E Smith, 126, B Baffert, 4/1
7. Rousing Sermon (CA), J Lezcano, 126, J Hollendorfer, 50/1
8. Creative Cause (KY), J Rosario, 126, M Harrington, 12/1
9. Trinniberg (KY), W Martinez, 126, B Parboo, 50/1
10. Daddy Nose Best (KY), G K Gomez, 126, S M Asmussen, 15/1
11. Alpha (KY), R Maragh, 126, K P McLaughlin, 15/1
12. Prospective (KY), L Contreras, 126, M E Casse, 30/1
13. Went the Day Well (NY), J R Velazquez, 126, H G Motion, 20/1
14. Hansen (KY), R A Dominguez, 126, M J Maker, 10/1
15. Gemologist (KY), J Castellano, 126, T A Pletcher, 6/1
16. El Padrino (KY), R Bejarano, 126, T A Pletcher, 20/1
17. Done Talking (KY), S Russell, 126, H A Smith, 50/1
18. Sabercat (KY), C S Nakatani, 126, S M Asmussen, 30/1
19. I'll Have Another (KY), M Gutierrez, 126, D F O'Neill, 12/1
20. Liaison (KY), M Garcia, 126 , B Baffert, 50/1 Also Eligible:
My Adonis (KY), E Trujillo, 126, K J Breen, 50/1
