Kentucky Derby Sneaks Up on Me Again

I first began to follow the Triple Crown of American three-year-old thoroughbred horseracing back in 1968, when the names Forward Pass, Dancer's Image, and Stage Door Johnny became the headlines.  Since then, I have tended to forget the three races comprising this tradition...the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes...until mid-spring each year when once again the whole process renews itself.  Ultimately, the goal is to see whether one horse can win all of the extremely competitive races, making it a Triple Crown champion.  In my lifetime of sixty years, I've only seen four of these: Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, Affirmed in 1978, and...finally, after a gap of 38 years...American Pharoah in 2015.  By far the most impressive horse I've ever seen was Secretariat, which blew away the rest of the field in the Belmont by well over thirty lengths.  But today, few are thinking about the Triple Crown...instead they are looking at this year's lineup and probably marveling at the lack of any clear-cut favorite...

At last look over the field of twenty entrants, Classic Empire was the slight favorite at 4-1, followed by McCraken and Always Dreaming, each at 5-1.  Then it's Irish War Cry at 6-1.  After these four, the odds get appreciably longer...however, I have a hunch (for what it's worth) that Gormley, at 15-1 and with an intriguing name (always a factor in my choosing which horse to root for) just might be the proverbial dark horse in this race.  But if I were to consider just the "top" four, I'd pick Classic Empire...although I also dig the name "Irish War Cry".  Then again, one of the biggest longshots in this year's Derby is Battle of Midway, probably not owned by anyone Japanese...

Today's Kentucky Derby is set to take place at 6:34 pm Eastern Time.  NBC will be broadcasting it and is already showing several hours of pre-race programming.  I'm writing this article from my "favorite" Starbucks in Magnolia Parke here in Gainesville, but I think I just might head on home afterward to watch some of that hype and analysis...

LATER...my hunches were wrong...no surprise there: Always Dreaming, which ended up as the betting favorite, started out fast and took advantage of its relatively inside post position and hugged the rail, thereby covering less distance then its rivals...finishing strong on the rain-soaked, muddy Churchill Downs track as 2017's Kentucky Derby winner.  A couple of longshots finished second and third and then Classic Empire crossed the line in fourth place, several lengths behind the winner...Gormley was in the middle of the pack of finishers.  Now it's on to the Preakness as the topic of discussion will be Always Dreaming's prospects of keeping hopes for a Triple Crown winner alive this year...