Mike Watchmaker

Given how inconsistent – and yes, weak – the division has been this year, I thought that by default, Haynesfield could be the best older male in the nation before he even made his 2011 debut in Saturday’s Westchester Stakes at Belmont Park. Well, all I can say after the Westchester is, the search for the best older male in the land continues, and is turning increasingly desperate.

Much has been written about how none of this year’s final Kentucky Derby preps were run fast enough to have received a triple digit Beyer Figure (with a Beyer of 98, the Arkansas Derby was the fastest final prep). But not much has been written about the interesting Beyer Figure situation concerning the Kentucky Oaks fillies. So we’ll try to remedy that.

Now that the preliminaries are over, I thought it would be fun to do a graded handicap of all of the final major preps for the Kentucky Derby from the angle of potential impact on the big race. Please keep in mind that as a graded handicap, these preps are ranked in my order of preference, not in odds order. Here goes: ARKANSAS DERBY – 4/16 – OP – (Winning Beyer) 98        7-2

If you had a sense of déjà vu late Saturday afternoon, you weren’t alone. For the second straight week, a highly ranked, highly respected, and heavily bet 3-year-old flopped in what was to be his final prep for the Kentucky Derby. Last week it was Uncle Mo in the Wood Memorial. On Saturday, it was The Factor in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

After having a night to sleep on it, I still can’t see much that was positive about Uncle Mo’s performance in Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in regard to his status for the Kentucky Derby.