“If you didn’t go to the wedding, don’t go to the funeral” remains an enduring racetrack proverb. For the Ellis Park Derby, “if you didn’t go to the wedding, you’re still invited to the renewing of vows” might prove more appropriate. Five weeks ago, Big Boat won a first-level allowance race by six lengths at an extremely overlaid 17-1. Too bad if you missed that, but at 10-1 on the morning line for the Ellis Park Derby, there’s still time to join the Big Boat party. Big Boat and seven others passed the entry box for the $300,000 Ellis Park Derby, run at one mile around 1 1/2 turns. The morning line has Admiral Dennis, who might have found himself winning the Delaware Derby, as the 8-5 favorite, a price too short to elicit interest, as is the 5-2 on morning-line second choice Big Truzz. Big Boat, a $460,000 Nyquist colt, debuted with a sharp Churchill Downs maiden win last September – sharp enough that trainer Jimmy DiVito, a fine, veteran horseman not prone to wild swings, ran him back in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity. No dice. Big Boat finished a distant seventh, but after a disappointing third as the favorite in a seven-furlong Churchill allowance, won by subsequent Amsterdam Stakes-winner Smoken Wicked, Big Boat set the pace and held second in a two-turn Oaklawn mile won by Sandman, who captured the Arkansas Derby in March. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. All along, DiVito felt Big Boat’s psychological development lagged. “He can be a nervous colt. I’m not sure why, but things bother him,” DiVito said. Big Boat in particular struggles to keep it together in the paddock, and the cramped indoor one at Oaklawn, where Big Boat twice ran poorly earlier this year, definitely was not for him. DiVito said Big Boat acted much better on July 3 at Ellis, then went out and contested a hot pace, took over in upper stretch, pulled steadily clear to the wire, and galloped out like the extra furlong Sunday won’t keep him from winning again. Admiral Dennis, a $425,000 yearling by Constitution, flopped in his first two stakes tries, the Gun Runner at Fair Grounds and the Rebel at Oaklawn. But he improved with a close fourth in the Blue Grass and, after a break of a little more than two months, showed much better positional pace on the way to a 3 1/4-length score – albeit over suspect competition – at Delaware. He drew post 8 for Sunday’s contest and needs another alert beginning. “He was fresh, had that time between the Blue Grass and Delaware,” trainer Brad Cox said, referring to Admiral Dennis getting more quickly and assertively into his race. “I think he can break running like he did last time.” Big Truzz made his two-turn debut in the Indiana Derby, his sixth-place finish perhaps a result of a wide trip on a severely inside speed-biased surface as much as a lack of stamina. His trainer, Brian Lynch, has a second starter, Jimmy’s Dailys, who makes his first start since taking a sound defeat in the Florida Derby. His second on Feb. 27 to eventual Wood Memorial winner Grande stamps him as a plausible player, and connections could have aimed for a first-level allowance rather than a stakes. Retribution took a step backward in the Maxfield Stakes last out and lacks appeal trying his first route. Big Boat held enormous appeal as a 17-1 winner last month. It might not be too late to climb aboard. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.