Not every Kentucky Derby prep can be as compelling as the San Felipe battle between McKinzie and Bolt d’Oro, or the Rebel dominated by Magnum Moon, so we’ll get to Saturday’s Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds in a moment. First, let’s discuss the two winners of Saturday stakes who might well have the biggest impact as this season rolls on – Good Samaritan, who was much the best in the New Orleans Handicap on the Louisiana Derby card, and Selcourt, the powerful winner of Santa Anita’s Santa Monica. Good Samaritan, who repeatedly proved despite a series of bad trips that he is one of the best turf performers of his generation, proved equally adept when switched to dirt last summer. He crushed Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing when he ran away with the Jim Dandy and closed his 2017 campaign with a near miss against older opponents in the Clark Handicap. The New Orleans Handicap was Good Samaritan’s first appearance since the Clark, and it was an impressive 4-year-old debut. Now, it must be noted that the complexion of the New Orleans changed radically when odds-on favorite The Player sustained dire injuries and had to be pulled up nearing the stretch. Nevertheless, Good Samaritan was very good Saturday, and not just because he won clear and going away while barely being asked. The New Orleans set up poorly for a deep closer like Good Samaritan. The early fractions for this nine-furlong affair were 23.88 seconds, 48.18, and 1:11.85, decidedly slower than the corresponding splits 3-year-old fillies put up in the Fair Grounds Oaks of 23.39, 46.28, and 1:11.02 and what those Kentucky Derby aspirants posted in the Louisiana Derby of 22.97, 46.64, and 1:11.47 in the two dirt races that immediately followed the New Orleans. Yet Good Samaritan still charged from well back to win the way he did. It makes you wonder how formidable he might be when he gets a pace setup even slightly more favorable. A formidable Good Samaritan would be a welcomed addition to an older dirt male division that can use some help in the wake of the post-Pegasus World Cup retirement of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner. West Coast, last year’s champion 3-year-old male and the runner-up to Gun Runner in the Pegasus, is in Dubai for Saturday’s Dubai World Cup, so who knows when he’ll be the major player he projects to be back on these shores? Big Cap winner Accelerate is hot right now, but he is – wisely – taking full advantage of the absence of other big players. Mor Spirit can be a prominent figure, but you can’t ever be sure of whether you’ll get the good Mor Spirit or the bad one. Always Dreaming is reportedly training well, but exactly what we get from him in actual action is anyone’s guess. Clearly, there is a big opening for Good Samaritan in the older dirt male division, and from what he showed Saturday, he’s good enough to capitalize. Selcourt figured on paper to be the controlling speed in the Santa Monica – no red board here as I wrote she would be in my Weekend Warrior column posted last Thursday – and she proved to be precisely that in the running. But even with that tactical advantage, Selcourt couldn’t have been any more impressive in victory. With utter disdain, she turned away two-time Grade 1 stakes winner Paradise Woods nearing the stretch (Paradise Woods, meanwhile, is increasingly looking like one who is far less effective when she doesn’t enjoy complete control of the early pace), strongly ran off to score by 4 1/2 lengths, and earned a solid preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 103. Right here, it should be noted that Selcourt, who has now won three straight stakes, is not one who requires an uncontested lead to be successful. She showed tons of guts last month when she prevailed in the Las Flores after being under severe early pace pressure. But the Santa Monica was revealing in that it offered a potential glimpse of what Selcourt might accomplish should she attempt to stretch out in distance and to two turns, which I suspect she is capable of doing successfully. The seven furlongs of the Santa Monica was as far as Selcourt has yet raced. But the relax-early/strong-finish profile of her performance bodes very well for a stretch-out to at least a middle distance around two turns, where early paces are usually less intense and speed types who can relax early and finish well become so dangerous. I loved that Selcourt’s connections mentioned the Beholder Mile as a potential target for her. Stretching out would certainly open up a whole new set of opportunities for Selcourt, with possibly only a limited number of obstacles in her path. The older dirt female division has more depth than its male counterpart. It has the brilliant Unique Bella. But defending divisional champ Forever Unbridled is to retire after the Dubai World Cup. Stellar Wind has already retired. And while eventual returnees Abel Tasman, Elate, and Vale Dori are high class, no one really knows if they will continue to produce at a high level until they actually do. Here, too, the door is open. NOTES: • There is no question that Noble Indy was as game as can be in prevailing in the Louisiana Derby, being active on a solid early pace, which was to be expected with blinkers on, and coming again to prevail after being displaced in midstretch. But how good was he? That is open to debate. Yes, Noble Indy was involved through honest fractions, but it would be a mistake to make too much of that. Yes, the pacesetter he tracked early finished a distant 10th and last, but that pacesetter was a 141-1 maiden. Also, note that the Fair Grounds Oaks went faster to the half and three-quarters, and the pacesetter in that one was beaten only a little more than a length. So, while the pace Noble Indy tracked was solid, it wasn’t extraordinary by any means. Noble Indy gets credit for coming back on late, but that didn’t happen in a vacuum. The horses he came back on were Lone Sailor, who had raced seven times before yet managed a previous career-best Beyer of only 78, and My Boy Jack, who was a popular bet-against among wise guys despite his off odds of 3-1 because his big win in last month’s Southwest was aided by a strong track bias. This Louisiana Derby just wasn’t as strong as some past editions. And when Risen Star one-two finishers Bravazo and Snapper Sinclair came up empty as pretenders (and not real contenders) are wont to do at this late stage of the Triple Crown prep season, it reduced this race’s degree of difficulty even more. • The Louisiana Derby went off at 5:41 p.m. Central, 20 minutes past the scheduled post time. That wasn’t as bad as the Muniz Memorial two races earlier going off 27 minutes after the scheduled post time, but it was bad enough. I know stuff happens, and there was an inquiry into the seventh race, but time is built in between races to compensate for things like that. The total disregard for scheduled post times by several tracks is reaching epidemic proportions. Forget for a moment, if you dare, how this practice alienates core customers. Imagine trying to introduce new people to the game – that’s what we all want, right? – and then having to explain to them that no, this race won’t go off when it was scheduled to go off. Instead, it will go off whenever the track feels like it has collected every possible wagering dollar, whether it takes an extra 15 minutes, or 20, or 27. Yup, that is a surefire way to make a whole bunch of new fans for life. I wonder what point we’ve reached when I think about patronizing racing signals because they attempt to adhere to scheduled post times, as if something that should be a mere given like sticking to scheduled post times has now morphed into an appealing attribute.