Jim, are you some kind of oracle? How can you say you like the overall look of a horse's line when you don't have the figures from the last race? Or do you know something we dont? How can you state matter-of-factly that HH is poised for a forward move and Buddah only backed up "slightly". That is impossible without the figures.

Chris and I are on the same page, but I do want to point out the IInk looked much more attractive last year beacuase his big race (1) was run in early Feb and he then bounced and showed a recovery race before the derby hinting he was cycling back. I thought Monarchos was ripe for an 0-2-x coming into the derby, but now looking back it was actually a 3.5 point bounce and I have since ammended my views to include horses running style and think that closers are less suseptable to 0-2-x patterns.

For those who keep comparing Monarchos to Buddah, Monarchos came into the derby running 15-15-7-3-0-3 and Buddah looks like 19-5-0-?. I'm guessing the last race is about a 2-3, but who knows. While Monarchos is not exactly what you want to see in the line of an even progression without quick jumps, it still is a more favorable pattern than Buddah. Throw in the fact that Buddah is more a front-running type, and I think you are going to see a classic 0-2-X from him in the derby.

Harlan I still give a shot in the exotics, but that was one tough spring he put together. The 0 in the Fla Derby may have been a knockout punch.

But hey, I love it when people talk about the favorites, it makes the odds better for the other horses. And I expect Buddah will take a lot of money from the once a year horse player who shows up for the derby because "he has a cool name". Battaglia says 15-1 for Perfect Drift in his preliminary line, I'll be ecstatic to get that, given I think he has a 15-20% chance of winning.