First of all, just want to say its been a year or two since my last post and I've missed this board. Law School ended up taking up a bit more time than I'd hoped for...

Re the Malibu:

1. Midas Eyes -- What strikes me most about the pattern is that he seems to be going good race - bad race with both the good and bad races regressing as the year has gone on. Off a (sub-par) good race, I'd expect an especially poor performance -- maybe not another 5, but that certainly seems to be in the realm of belief.

2. Baltic Heights -- Love this horse. Huge move last time with blinkers off and has had plenty of time to develop since then. Got a feeling Harty has this one sitting on go.

3. Watchem Smokey -- Doesn't seem to be improving but is consistent and thus an obvious toss-in on the bottom of exotics.

4. Blazonry -- Didn't fire his best shot off the last layoff and it isn't Walsh's speciality. Still respect any horse who can toss a 0 at 7 furlongs. Gotta use if you're spreading.

5. Marino Marini -- Tough to toss anything O'Neill leads over these days and gotta think the Storm Cat (and Waquoit) offspring prefer dirt to turf but he seems a little too slow regardless.

6. Domestic Dispute -- Possibly the worst purchase in the history of horse racing. When Baffert gives up on a Derby prospect, you can book it being done. Unfortunately, that purchaser is the dad of a friend so I'll be cheering if he wins, but I won't have a dime on him. Easy toss.

7. Buddy Gil -- Never fully bought into this horse and have lost plenty of money taking a stand against him. No reason to stop now, though I've been wrong more than I've been right with him. Just a note, Mullins is clearly great but his last Derby horse, Lusty Latin, has not been the same since returning from a layoff. Remains to be seen if the lifelong claiming trainer can really maintain a G1 quality animal over an extended campaign.

8. Eye of the Tiger -- Gotta use him underneath if you're using Watchem Smokey. As far as I can tell, they're the same horse.

9. Special Rate -- Maybe Bobby thinks he can pull another Mizzen Mast going turf-to-dirt with this one. If he does, I'll tip my cap but I can't play him with his numbers.

10. Posse -- Fairly consistent all year and then popped a big one in the slop. He hasn't run over his pre-existing tops in the slop before so the improvement could be real. On the other hand, it might cause a fairly big bounce if it is real improvement and not just preference for the slop. Gut feeling is that he won't repeat but still has to be used for a piece.

11. Southern Image -- Don't see this horse improving til he can put together two races in a row. Also don't like the habit of getting off slowly -- that could cause real problems in a field this size. Maybe in the bottom rung of the super.

12. Toccet -- Another one I've never liked. On the other hand, tossing the BC race, it looks like he 0-2-X'ed and then came back with a pair of tops. His races are sure clumping up but that when he did his best running last year. Nevertheles, tough to back with confidence on the ship and coming back for third time in 6 weeks.

13. Zavata -- Hasn't shown much affinity for this strip and Biancone, who is 0-17 with blinks-on, putting on the hood today smacks of desperation. Talented enough on his best day but that seems to come about once a year and its already happened this year. Gotta take a stand against.