Recapping my Abject Derby Humiliation

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

Yesterday was the KY Derby and had a Floyd Mayweather fight. It reminded me of the article where I said my dream is for Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao in the infield of the track while Zenyatta races against Rachel Alexandra.

Yesterday's derby and Mayweather's fight shared two common links yesterday: both were favored and both significantly changed their usual game plans en route to victory. Money Mayweather actually initiated a lot of the action in the later rounds- which is rare for him, and Super Saver sat off the lead, which many horse players had little reason to assume would happen.

After looking at Super Saver's previous races, it would be safe to assume that the horse would again go right to the lead. But when Calvin Borel had Super Saver pinned to the rail about 4 lengths off of a suicidal pace, I had a very bad feeling about the future of the Super Saver-less bets I made. Betting all exactas that excluded SS, I couldn't win if SS finished any better than third. So I decided to watch Borel and SS navigate the rail and not look away until I saw two horses pass him, because I knew he was a good horse who was getting by far the shortest trip around the track. When the horses who set the suicidal pace started to fade, it was SS who reached them first and passed them like they were standing still.

No one passed Super Saver and Borel and I watched him hit the wire first. He ran a race I didn't think he would, or frankly could, and won. Great game plans by trainers Roger Mayweather and Todd Pletcher. And that's probably the first time those guys have been in the same sentence together.






That's how I roll.