Derby Weekend Recap

So, that was the Derby...and the Oaks...and opening weekend. Whew. Let's look at what happened...

Oaks
As expected, Proud Spell surged clear through the stretch and proved much better than the rest. Somewhat surprisingly, Little Belle ran a big one to place while a bunch of logical fillies rounded out the exotics. I missed it all because I thought Little Belle was no better than the 4th best runner in the this field. Oh well, I had the winner...

Derby
Awesome. Big Brown broke from the parking lot, raced wide the whole way around and still won stylishly. It was one of the 5 greatest performances I've ever seen. That said, is he this good or is the rest of the field just that bad? Time will tell.

My derby bets were equally as atrocious as my Oaks bets, but I will say that the entire superfecta could have been made with my probables and maybes. That has to count for something...right? Okay, maybe not.

Canterbury
Here are some statistics regarding my selections for Canterbury's opening day card:
Top choice - 3 winners (33%), 1 place, 1 DQ'd from first to last, 1 scratch, 3 off the board.
Top 3 choices - 5 winners (56%) + 1 DQ'd from first to last

If I can consistently get my top choice home at a 33% (should be 44% w/DQ) clip, I'll be exceptionally happy. Yes, one of those winners was a very chalky favorite and the others were no worse than 3rd choices, but winners are winners.

I would say that Sahan ran the most visually impressive race of the day. He shot out of the gate and immediately put 2 on the field and never looked back. He looked really, really good. We'll see where he lands next.

In other news, the chaos of Derby day has left huge carryovers at Churchill for Wednesday. I'm not going to touch the Pick 6, but I may take a stab at the High 5. If I do, I'll post some thoughts here.

I'll put together a tipsheet for Saturday's card later in the week. I will actually be visiting Bay Meadows in lovely San Mateo, CA on Saturday and may post some picks for that card as well.