I also invested in Eddington in Pool 2, but I'm not convinced he has earned his way in. I expected him to run better than he did in the Gotham and certainly in the Wood. At the top of the stretch in the Wood, he had every opportunity to run away from the field and failed to do so. He only beat Swingforthefences (who had a similar trip ground-loss-wise) by a length. He certainly has room to improve, but, if the opportunity does itself, I wouldn't take anything other than a long price on that improvement coming in the Derby.

That said, I think the rules for getting into the Derby could stand to be tweaked. I think money earned as a 2yo or at less than a mile should be discounted or ignored. If a trainer thinks he has a top 3yo with the stamina to get 10 furlongs, he ought to be required to show it by running his horse in routes against quality competition at 3. There's no way Birdstone or Minister Eric has done enough at 3 to warrant inclusion in the field. To some extent, I feel the same way about Action This Day, although I can see an argument that the BC Juvenile winner should be automatically eligible for the Derby.

In general, I think that rules for entry in the Derby and the BC and voting for year-end championships should be oriented towards getting trainers to run their horses against quality competition more often. It makes for better betting races all year long, which is good for racing.