he did it in the florida derby too

[click image]

.
Ice box would seem to be a come from behind in the mud kind of guy. He did it at Florida and ALMOST nailed it in Kentucky. He almost didn't in Florida and, if you watch, you can see his head was waaay in the air for the first half of his run. I can't remember seeing that before. I've seen them start gawking at the stands or zigzagging when the jockey has put the petal to the metal, but I don't remember ever seeing one with his nose in the air like that while running dead out. Jumpers do that when boxing toward a hurtle, but I think what's up with Ice Box is that he's just a bit greener than he should be right now. Probably a regular neon-brained colt who's just not in the groove yet.

Or, don't listen to me. I've always been a sucker for the come-from-behind winners... I mean waaaaay behind. It takes all kinds of horse to do that. Granted, this usually means that they can't do it if there's too much speed for too much distance, but the ones who do these in such hot company can do it any day of the week.

I've spent an hour looking for the most spectacular of these wins ever, but I'm going senile and can't remember the name or the race. It was huuuuuge... and I can see it in my mind's eye like it was yesterday... but I haven't been able to dig up the specifics enough to share it here.
.

Well, and I don't like his legs. He's got a heck of a lot of that Native Dancer weak legs syndrome blood in him too... not forgetting that even where Native Dancer wasn't in the mix, the same stallions and broodmares who went into Native Dancer went into the other horses in his bloodline... and... you can see it in his legs.
.

super saver?

[click image]

.
Sounds like a damn catalog entry....

Only photo I've seen of the race so far is too demoralizingly muddy to bother with. Very handsome colt, though, and solid Buckpasser stock, with a much lighter dosage of Native Dancer horses, so that's a relief. I can now hope he gets all three and not be so worried his legs will blow up.
.

Holy fuck! The most thrilling part was seeing Ice Box go into hyperdrive from the back of the pack—utterly slimed—for second... I swear, given half a second longer, he'd've won by twenty lengths, he was going so fast! Good Christ on a Crutch! On that AWFUL bog of a track, that animal was traveling. I'm gonna have to pick him for the Belmont. THAT fast at the end of a mile and a quarter, means for dead certain he's got the distance. Probably not the sprint for the Preakness, but, whoa... he was going so fast that even though I knew Super Saver won it, I thought Ice Box was going to put him away.

Yipes.
.

Ouch! I gotta take that back. Ice Box has the sprint all over everybody. Dammittalltoheck! Shit! He should've won today. We would have had the Triple Crown at last.
.

Whull, unless Eskandereya gets back in, that is....

But, really, now, we gotta root for the pretty horsie with the stupid name.
.

we gotta root for lookin at lucky

[click image]

.
Since Eskendereya was scratched, and I have to be relieved because I'd've been dying of anxiety about him living through it, my mother tells me that we must root for Baffert's horse, because Baffert is always nice to my mother, and that counts on the odds.

Except... heavy sigh... it appears Lookin at Lucky has more Native Dancer in his pedigree even than Eskendreya has, so I'm back on the hook. Sidney's Candy, somehow, doesn't do it for me, and I wish he would because he's got sturdier, if less classy, bloodlines. I swear, I'm already getting heartburn.

On top of everything, the track's a total mess....
.

it's derby day

[this would be the look i'd choose]

Geddoucher floopy hats and sprigs of mint and crank up ESPN for Derby Day... until the actual run for the roses and then it moves over to network [1pm, PDT on NBC].... This is serious stuff around here.