I watched the race live at a simulcast site and never saw the view from behind the gate on the track feed. I had bet Ex Caelis in Pool 1, saw the late action on her in Pool 3 (when she still had not run yet as a 3 y.o.) and thought her race at Oaklawn was a perfect set-up.

But she was dead on the board at Churchill for a supposedly live Lukas horse, which made me a little nervous.

I did not see the gate incident until I saw the ESPN tape that night when I got home...and I didn't know I had such words in my vocabulary as came out of me then. They had already scratched 2 filles at the gate in an earlier race for a lot less than what Ex Caelis did. When they put her back in the gate to race, I could almost believe Croll's story about Holy Bull and the gate crew.

Someone said on another thread that Kentucky brought down a sub starter from New York for Derby Day because the one at Churchill was still new. Who was the starter on Oaks Day - the new Kentucky guy or the New York sub?

Delmar Deb