12/21/2009

THE BEST OF A DECADE ...PLUS MY EARLY KENTUCKY DERBY WATCH

During the first decade of the 21st Century, I had the privilege and good fortune to be based each winter at Oaklawn Park, first as the correspondent for Daily Racing Form, and later as the in-house writer.

During that time, I got to see in action arguably the top four male horses of the decade -- in chronological order Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron and Curlin -- as well as clearly the top four female horses --in order Azeri, Eight Belles, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra.

If memory serves, and I think it does, those eight magnificent thoroughbreds started a combined 19 times at Oaklawn, all in stakes races, and won 18 times.

Eighteen for nineteen!

The lone loser?

An ailing Afleet Alex in the '05 Rebel.

If you twisted my arm, I would rate the eight in the following order:

1. Smarty Jones
2. Zenyatta
3. Curlin
4. Rachel Alexandra
5. Afleet Alex
6. Azeri
7. Eight Belles
8. Lawyer Ron

Can you imagine any list with Lawyer Ron on the bottom?

All this wonderful colt did at 3 was win the Southwest, Rebel and Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn for Bob Holthus, and at 4, the Whitney and the Woodward at Saratoga for Todd Pletcher. In the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, he gave Curlin, racing at the top of his game, all he wanted before falling a head short.

Millions of words have been written by hundreds of turf writers in praise of these eight great horses. Well and good. But, other than Bob Yates of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Bob Wisener of the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record, I don't know of another media person who was blessed with the opportunity to cover all those 19 races.

I'm sorry, but selecting at least one winner a day for 207 straight days in DRF somehow pales by comparison in my proverbial book of memories.

Eighteen for nineteen!

Incredible.

Simply incredible.

And I didn't even get to Rockport Harbor, Round Pond and Medaglia d'Oro.

And speaking of Oaklawn, that's the first option for Noble's Promise, one of the top 2-year-olds in the land - and the top one in the second edition of my Derby Top Ten (see below).

On Saturday, Noble's Fortune was a fast-closing -- and what I consider a very controversial -- second to Lookin at Lucky in the $750,000 Cashcall Futurity at Hollywood Park, a race that decided the 2-year-old Eclipse Award.

Bob Baffert, bless his scheming heart, ran an uncoupled three-horse entry in the race -- Lookin at Lucky, The Program and Marcello.

The Program, under Victor Espinoza, went right to the top from the three-hole, while Lookin at Lucky, with Garrett Gomez Up, broke running from the one-hole, and tucked into second place down on the rail, a length and a half off the leader.

In watching the race, it was obvious that Lucky would have no problem squeezing inside of The Program, racing in the three-path. For sure, that's what happened. Lucky blew by his barnmate from the inside leaving the half-mile pole, and was pretty much all out to hold off Noble's Promise, who raced three-wide throughout from post six.

"Change the post positions," said Rafael Bejarano, "and no doubt I win the race. My horse came running to the end, he never quit. There's no question I had the better horse. And we'll prove it next time."

That is if Bejarano gets to ride Noble's Promise the next time. Robby Albarado had been tapped by trainer Ken McPeek to ride NP in the CashCall, but was injured in a spill, and had to take off.

I rang McPeek on Monday morning with hopes of getting some incendiary quotes.

Instead, McPeek, who had 36 hours to cool down, said basically: "I can't worry about what happened Saturday. It was what it was. As far as I'm concerned, the race proved to me that I'll have a nice 3-year-old. That's the bottom line."

That said, McPeek's plans for Noble's Promise?

"I'm going to give him 30 days on a farm," he said, "and let him put on some weight. I'll bring him back in late February or early March. I want to keep him on dirt so right now I'm looking at those Oaklawn races (the Southwest, Rebel and Arkansas Derby). It will be a homecoming for me since I was born and raised in Arkansas."

Noble's Promise is not the only Triple Crown prospect in the McPeek barn.

"I've got a nice 2-year-old in Florida named Positive Split," he said. "He finished second to American Lion in his first start, and broke his maiden impressively next time at Keeneland. I'll be looking to run him first time at 3 at two-turns at Gulfstream."

While McPeek was licking his wounds, Baffert was celebrating the second fourbagger of his Hall of Fame career, all with 2-year-olds. In addition to winning the Cashcall with Lookin at Lucky, the clear winter book favorite for the Derby, Bullet Bob won the $53,500 Stuka Stakes with Tiz Chrome, and a maiden-special with the first-starter Clutch Player. The margin of victory in both cases was four lengths.

Baffert also has a fourth Triple Crown prospect named Conveyance, a seven-length winner of his HollyPark debut on Nov. 25. He'll make his 3-year-old debut next month in an allowance at Santa Anita.

And so for those keeping score at home, this gives Baffert four TC prospects, and McPeek two.

Here is the second edition of my Kentucky Derby Top Ten:

If this was a Top 20 rather than a Top 10, we would fine room for Baffert's other good 3-year-olds, as well as Positive Split.

Obviously, our Derby Top Ten is worth following. After all, it was only two years back that Big Brown, Eight Belles and Duke of York were listed 1-2-3 in our final DTT...and that's how they finished.

Also, while looking at an Alysheba piece on-line last week, it brought back memories of 1987 when Alysheba, at the time 100-1 in Vegas, topped my first Derby Top Ten (February) in the New York Post.

Speaking of former employees, can someone please explain why Daily Racing Form omitted Fair Grounds PPs from its Eastern edition Saturday inasmuch as the New Orleans track was running nine stakes that day -- one of which was the $100,000 Daily Racing Form Stakes!