The scratch of Forte and 4 others leading up to the start of the 149th Kentucky Derby made it difficult to predict who would win. I had win bets on Verifying, Confidence Game, and Derma Sotogake. I also had 2 trifectas with Tapit Trice, Kingsbarns, Angel Of Empire and Two Phil’s, Angel Of Empire, Kingsbarns. The last trifecta only needed Mage instead of Kingsbarns to win $491.
Mage was on my short list of long shots, but for a couple reasons I went with Confidence Game. Javier Castellano who was on Mage, had never finished better than sixth in 15 Derby tries. Mage had never won a graded stakes race. His best was a 2nd place finish behind Forte in the grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream. He did have improving speed figures in his last 3 races with a 102 E figure just prior to the Derby.
The top 4 finishers were: Mage, Two Phil’s, Angel of Empire, and Disarm. Two Phil’s looked like he was going to win for a moment in the stretch. It was a great effort by jockey Jareth Loveberry to finish 2nd in his first Kentucky Derby. I was live with a pick 3 going into the derby with Tapit Trice, Angel Of Empire, and Derma Sotogake. Derma finished sixth ahead of Tapit Trice. I only wagered $29 on the races at Churchill Downs. I had a win bet on General Jim in the 8th race that paid $12.
I tried watching the early races on TVG Live, but the track feed was only available on the app. I did find the derby pre-races on Peacock with full track side coverage. The big story was the suspension of Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. and the scratch of his horses from every race. It will be interesting to see if they find the cause for the two horses from his barn that died unexpectedly at the track. Now we can all forget about horse racing for another year… J/K.