from The Villages Daily Sun:

It seemed that California racing had its Kentucky Derby horse, as Lookin At Lucky returned to the winner’s circle following his victory in the Grade-I Cashcall Futurity at Santa Anita on Saturday.

When Lookin At Lucky won the race, he basically wrapped up the Eclipse Award for the top 2-year-old colt or gelding. He has now won five of six starts. His only defeat was by a head in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. All six of his starts have been on synthetic surfaces.

When trainer Bob Baffert was asked what was next for his champion colt, he replied he would be rested, then have two races prior to the Kentucky Derby. That had to make California racing officials assume that one of the two races would be the Santa Anita Derby, a premier Derby prep in the past.

It was what Baffert said next that had to make California racing officials cringe — “on the dirt.” That means California won’t have the champion 2-year-old and current Derby favorite as a drawing card in their big race.

maybe oaklawn! That sure would make my day!

and with the track record of horses the last 5 years, i think its the best bet

Originally Posted by kingoftherapid

and with the track record of horses the last 5 years, i think its the best bet

Baffert isn't a Oaklawn guy at all, I hope you got to cash that Tampa Bay under !! I cannot wait to collect on that one after the season is over in two weeks.


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My guess would be Fair Grounds. Baffert's been known to run some horses there in the past.

Bob Baffert wins pick four at Hollywood Park -- latimes.com

Says Lucky will either go here or New York! Bring him on! The dirt here suits the Socal horses well. lol ask larry zapeye.

Put half a G on tampa under... easiest bet i have been given in years!!!! lol thanks to you FB

Nice article, thanks. Check out the quote from Baffert on Tiz Chrome:


"I've got a lot of young horses and I've got to spread them out," Baffert said.

Among those is Tiz Chrome, who won Saturday's $50,000 Stuka Stakes by four lengths.

"He's a real serious horse, real serious," Baffert said.

I actually like Tiz Chrome more than I like Lucky. How do ya'll feel about it. The way that horse went thru the smokin fractions and went into overdrive was a neat thing to see. Maybe it was a freak thing because you could actually see that horse hit two higher gears in the stretch. It was like click, see ya boys, click again, smell my tailfeathers!

I will see you at Oaklawn this coming meet hope to be there for one of the big weekends, I know it won't be the Ark Derby weekend as it falls on Easter and cannot leave my little girl on that weekend.


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Loads of potential, but Lookin at Lucky is clearly the more accomplished of the two right now, and has multiple wins around two turns. Long way until May though. Even horses with credentials as solid as Lookin at Lucky (and there are rarely horses with better this time of year) are gigantic question marks when it comes to a 1 1/4 race 4 months in the future. That's why the odds you see being thrown around (he's currently 6/1 @ Wynn) are beyond ridiculous. Even Tiz Chrome is down to 20/1 @ Wynn, and he's never been past 6.5 furlongs.

Originally Posted by DiscreetCat

Loads of potential, but Lookin at Lucky is clearly the more accomplished of the two right now, and has multiple wins around two turns. Long way until May though. Even horses with credentials as solid as Lookin at Lucky (and there are rarely horses with better this time of year) are gigantic question marks when it comes to a 1 1/4 race 4 months in the future. That's why the odds you see being thrown around (he's currently 6/1 @ Wynn) are beyond ridiculous. Even Tiz Chrome is down to 20/1 @ Wynn, and he's never been past 6.5 furlongs.

Every year during the derby preps I tell myself I'm done with futures (last year I had Pamplemousse and I Want Revenge, pointless to say how furious they made me) yet somehow I find myself excited for the first round of derby futures already

You can occasionally pick up some bargains in the Derby futures, at least in Vegas, due to the fact that many casinos simply don't know what they're doing (and.or aren't paying attention). Some of them will put out futures by copying another hotel's sheet, and then they'll be clueless about updating it (other than just copying whatever new sheets are put out around town). For instance, i got The Pamplemousse @ 75/1 after his San Rafael win last year. I also got Quality Road @ 80/1 after his Fountain of Youth win. You just have to remain vigilant.

The pari-mutuels futures are obviously a different story, as there's rarely any value to be found there aside from the Round One field entry. Perhaps when (if) they expand the betting menu beyond 23 individual horses, then that will become a viable option. Ocasionally a horse with long odds in the first round of futures will blossom (I Want Revenge was 54/1 in Round One last year), but when the mdiea pundits talk about what a big overlay this or that horse was in the pari-mutuel futures, they're speaking with the benefit of hindsight. Realistically, it's hard to pin down any one horse as an overlay at those kinds of prices. Even the horses that i annually take @ triple-digits (and i have one very nice prospect already) are complete shots-in-the-dark, and are pretty marginal even at those prices. The only reason i do it is that you can potentially win a lot of money for a relatively small investment, and of course it's fun to follow and root for your future-bet horses as the months progress. I know i had a lot of fun with The Pamplemousse last year (i had first taken him @ 150/1 while he was still a maiden), but of course i also woke up to a major disappointment on the morning of the Santa Anita Derby.