It’s the chance of a lifetime, in a lifetime of chance. – Dan Fogelberg
Prior to last Saturday’s contest action at Churchill Downs, Steve Hennen and Richard Carlson were neck and neck for the lead with over 11,000 points each in our Road to Kentucky contest. There are at least 30 players who could conceivably still win the whole thing with strong finishes in the final two weeks, as the Kentucky Derby alone could be worth in excess of 3,000 contest points. But the two atop the leaderboard have shaken 800 points clear as of this writing.
The Derby Trial card offered up 2,626 contest points for anyone that was able to navigate a perfect score. The featured race had a disqualification as favored Bayern drifted out and interfered with Embellishing Bob (9/2), with Myositis Dan another nose back in third. Embellishing Bob was worth 392 contest points, second on the night to Race 6 winner Grey by You (14-1) who closed with a rush to get up by a neck and return 460 points to his backers. I managed to find the Derby Trial winner and had a close call with an 18-1 runner-up in Race 5, but I stalled out in the 700’s for a weekly total. Expect the winning score to be in the 1,500 point range this week, and good luck if you pieced together a few of those mid-priced winners!
Next week is the Kentucky Derby and the final week of the Road to Kentucky contest. The Derby is worth triple points next week, so a lot of ground can be made up with just a little bit of chaos. If you are looking for Sunday’s headlines early, here is my projected order of finish:
1) Intense Holiday
2) California Chrome
3) Hoppertunity
Canterbury’s doors open at 8am on Saturday and the first race from Churchill is 9:30 am, and thus the final leg of R2K contest begins at that time as well. Set your alarm clock and get out here for a full day of pari-mutuel bliss.
The Oracle
