Instead of rolling out a traditional Top 10 list, we’ve decided to give it a little twist this year. Eric DeCoster and Eric Solomon are going to have a friendly competition, choosing a fantasy stable of ten prospects for the Kentucky Derby. The Derby Points will determine the scoring, so if a winning horse in a player’s stable wins a 50 point race, the player gets 50 points. Any horse not selected into a stable will be available to pick up “on waivers” after each week, leading up to the Derby. The scoring for the Kentucky Derby will be 200 points to the winning horse, 80 points to the second place finisher, 40 points for third, and 20 points for 4th. Each week, we’ll post some thoughts and rationale for managing our stable.
| Eric D’s Stable | Eric S’s Stable |
| Mo Donegal | Smile Happy |
| Classic Causeway | Zandon |
| Simplification | Charge It |
| Emmanuel | Chasing Time |
| Epicenter | White Abarrio |
| Barese | In Due Time |
| Rattle N Roll | Forbidden Kingdom |
| Shipsational | Morello |
| God of Love | Barber Road |
| Early Voting | Ethereal Road |
| Total Points: 50 | Total Points: 30 |
Eric Solomon’s Stable: (Week 2 Update)
It wasn’t the start I was hoping for, but it also wasn’t completely unexpected as Epicenter had a definite pace advantage on paper over both Smile Happy and Zandon in the Risen Star. All three ran strong races, so I’m happy with my pair going into the 100 point races in a few weeks. There’s only one Derby Points race on the books this weekend, but there’s four coming up next weekend, so I’m going to try to at least draw even with Eric this weekend. The most likely winner of the Rebel, Newgrange, is not eligible for Derby Points, and thus none of his horses are in our stables right now.
I was waffling back and forth about whether or not to swap out Slow Down Andy from my stable. I do think he’s a horse that could rebound from his wide 6th place effort in the Risen Star, however, with only one prep this weekend, I decided to add the impressive maiden winner, Ethereal Road in his place. He blew the break but made up a ton of ground when breaking his maiden in the race that followed the Southwest Stakes last month. D. Wayne Lukas has a filly in the Honeybee, Secret Oath, whose lightbulb went off at this meet. She dominated both of her local starts and is the heavy favorite in that race on Saturday. The same might be true for this son of Quality Road. This gives me three horses to try to tackle the heavy favorite, Newgrange, who is not eligible to earn Derby Points. I’m looking forward to seeing if Chasing Time and Barber Road can continue to progress.
Eric DeCoster’s Stable (Week 2 Update):
Big opening weekend for the stable as Epicenter took out the Lecomte in impressive fashion. All of the sudden, I’ve lucked into the co-Derby favorite by some bookmakers in the fifth round of the draft! I was honestly very surprised he was able to win the way he did, drawing clear without much asking, but we do have to consider how easy the race set up for him on that day. He proved he has chinks in his armor in the Lecomte last out, so I’m still not fully confident in Epicenter, but obviously can’t be too critical when picking up 50 points.
No changes for me this weekend as the barn is still healthy and only one horse has run since the draft. No runners for me in the Rebel on Saturday either, but expect to see the likes of Simplification, Barese, Rattle N Roll, and potentially Early Voting run on the first Saturday of March. With three Derby 50-point preps that day, it looks to be a big separating weekend along the Derby trail.
