The jockey's eyes saw Lock's ears still playing around as they had reached the top of the stretch, and the horse accelerated just enough to create a sliver of separation. In that moment of separation, nearly every single person in the Let It Ride group described what they believed. That the horse would pull clear and potentially win or run second. That sliver of separation and that sliver of time initiated emotions of instantaneous joy, excitement, and awe. I was standing behind almost everyone from the group seeing the screaming, yelling, and jumping accompanying those emotions. Surreal does not describe that sliver of time. That separation from every one else in that very moment.

And then in the time it took to read this sentence, Incredibolt started to track him down. Hope for second split through our minds, and then the other pressers and closers ran Lock down including the Baffert B-team bad favorite Buetane nailing him for 4th place money and points.

There he stands at 55th on the Kentucky Derby Points leaderboard with 5 points and $15,000 in non-restricted stakes earnings. While Derby dreams may have split apart in those slivers of time near the one mile pole, other ideas remain with a horse the trainer describes as one that can create a lot of fun moving ahead. If healthy, we shall see the Let It Ride silks carry onward to the next goal and the next dream.
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On a handicapping note, I am having a very difficult time reconciling the route fractions on the day as well as last year with the fractions and the result of the Virginia Derby. The horses running 4th, 10th, and 6th early finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The fractions looked pedestrian early esp compared to the race before and after at 8.5 furlongs and compared to last year's running.

Incredibolt (coming off the bad rail noneffort at Gulfstream) shaded 12 seconds for the final furlong yet only was assigned an 88 Beyer for that slow final time while Bottle of Rouge earned an 87 winning the Virginia Oaks. This was no superstar Virginia Derby field but I wonder if that figure is accurate and you also wonder if Incredibolt is capable of much better number-wise.

As for LSP, my belief is the horse is best suited for races up to 1 mile; but he has not had the chance to stalk, press or rate at a route distance yet. Plans remain TBD obviously. It has been quite a ride for Let It Ride and we will be cheering again where-ever he may end up.

It's those slivers of time within the race we will be waiting to have strike within each of us again.

Thanks to Trainer Tom Drury and Jockey Edgar Morales for the work to create those moments up to and including yesterday with this horse.