Merv Griffin produced the game show Jeopardy. So, with a tip of the cap to Merv, here's a question for a future episode:

Answer: COBALT BLUE

Question: What colt was a VERY bad bet in the 2007 Illinois Derby?

I couldn't believe it when, with 25 minutes to post in the Illinois Derby, COBALT BLUE's odds first-flashed at 4-5! ThoroGraphically-speaking, the colt did not warrant those odds. His last race, a wire-to-wire rail-all winning effort at Santa Anita came back a slow ThoroGraph 7. After that race, the colt's owner, Merv Griffin, was interviewed and the colt got hyped up. To me, COBALT BLUE was as bad a favorite as I've seen in a while.

Who was betting COBALT BLUE? Merv and the boys? Raggies? Did the colt have a completely different Ragozin pattern, as has happened so often in the past? It wouldn't be the first time the ThoroGraphs and Rags painted a different picture. Or, had the the colt been injected before the race? Was that behind the tote action? Whatever. COBALT BLUE was never a factor.

The painfully obvious COWTOWN CAT won easily. How could he go off at as much as 7-2? Preposterous. More preposterous was that the Pletcher-Asmussen exacta paid $117.20.

JTC