Tuesday Kentucky Derby update

Square Eddie is out of the Derby. Not a big deal as he was not in the betting picture anyway.

Todays angle is the dirt versus synthetic topic. I talked about this last year. Basically horses run faster on dirt than the new synthetic surfaces. Horses can also have trouble making the transition from synthetic to dirt, this factors into the California horses since a lot of tracks out there are synthetic. The Derby is on dirt (duh). Here is a list stolen from another site of the horses and what surface they have won on.

A look at what Derby field has run (and won) over:

Dirt winners
Dunkirk*
Flying Private
Freisan Fire*
Join in the Dance
Musket Man*
Regal Ransom
Summer Bird*
Take the Points
Win Willy
*-Has also run on synthetics

Synthetic winners
*-Advice
Chocolate Candy
*-Hold Me Back
*-Mine That Bird
Mr. Hot Stuff
Pioneerof the Nile
*-has also run on dirt

Won on both
Desert Party
I Want Revenge
Papa Clem
West Side Bernie

So what does all that mean, I don't have a clue. History is short on this topic as synthetics only came in about three years ago. However, last year at the Derby, synthetic only runners did not finish better than sixth. Two horses I like early are syns only, Chocolate Candy and Pioneerof the Nile. Of course, I Want Revenge came off the syns and had two huge races on dirt in NY.

It factors in somehow but I don't have a clue how.

Later,
JH