IMO the bulk of the Kentucky Derby field will be determined by the eight (8) major preps. Those are all scheduled in the say 45 days preceding the 1st Saturday in May.

So switching trainers to a proxy trainer for two races (a major prep & the Derby) seems easy enough. Servis probably won't be in jail yet. Or the gal who trained Runhappy, oh she might be in jail? The major preps pay 100-40-20-10 so win one and you're in.

Again I'm curious about which intrepid trainers will be shipping prospects to Meydan for the UAE Derby. O'Neil went last year, I believe. So a repeat is not unreasonable. They are, I suppose, the easiest points to capture.

Curiously, the Jack Ruby Stakes (Is he the guy who shot Oswald) has been elevated to major prep. The 50 points from the Tampa Derby and the Sunland Derby will surely attract some curious prospects and make those events interesting. I'm wondering how those two surfaces compare to Churchill Downs.

To date I'm not impressed with the accomplishments of KD participants traveling from FL or NM to CD, with the exception of Mine That Bird, and come on that was an anomaly.

You heard it here first, I predict a Baffert trainee via a surrogate to win in New Mexico. Back in KY, no Japanese entry this year's Derby? C'est Domage or is there an automatic spot?. No Euro? No Aussies, No Asians. Just the Baffert's, Assmussen's, Pletcher's, and Brown's, with outliers any one of which may have a horse who could run its race of a lifetime to key a big vertical payoff.

But back to the Real World and the Baffert System (Book to Come) produces another Kentucky Derby Winner a Canadien bred I suspect via the Bluegrass. Or a British Luxury Car might be more appropriate.

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