The Point Spread Column

By: Bob Johnson   Date: May 8, 2006

Steppenwolfer paid 7.80 to show. He runs in the money wherever he goes. He was second in the Arkansas Derby and Southwest and third in the Rebel. The prices were decent all around. Barbaro paid 14.20, 8.00, 6.00 and 30-1 shot Bluegrass Cat was a big payout at 28.40 and 15.40. The Exacta paid $587. Gary Stevens had a write-up in the paper here and believe it or not, he mentioned Bluegrass Cat. He limited the Derby down to six horses and Bluegrass Cat was one of the six. Bluegrass Cat is trained by Todd Pletcher (Dallas trainer) and owned by Kenny Trout of Dallas and Bill Casner of Southlake, a town in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. It was the first derby for the owners. Also, it was the first derby for Gretchen and Roy Jackson the owners of Barbaro. For some reason Sweetnorthernsaint went off as the track favorite at odds closing. After reading all the stuff about the race, I guess I should have unloaded on Barbaro. Easy to say that now, but apparently some people realized that horse is a monster. He looked like Secretariat the way he destroyed them. Finding a winner and the best horse is such a crapshoot when 20 horses are involved. However, Barbaro left little to argue about. Even his competitors said that there was no way that they were going to beat Barbaro the way he ran yesterday. Jockey Edgar Prado deserved the attention after riding in the shadows of greats for so many years at Santa Anita. Prado never got the mounts that people like McCarren, Stevens and Pincay got. Actually, Secretariat really didn't run away with the derby. That was the Belmont when he did that. Although he holds the Churchill Downs record, Secretariat was challenged by a pretty good horse named Sham, who was runner-up to Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby. Yesterday. Barbaro was pulling away further at the end. That is hard to believe because he was given a fairly rigorous workout on the day of the race early that morning! Very unusual. If Barbaro is that strong, then he could have what it takes to win the Belmont, which is the kler race for all Triple Crown aspirants because of the distance. Of course, he has to get by the Preakness first. The $2 Trifecta paid $11,418.40. There was thought to be a dead heat between Jazil and Brother Derek for 4th place which figured into the Superfecta payout. Officially, Jazil was ruled 4th so the winning Superfecta was on the 8-13-2-1 horses and the $2 Superfecta was good for $42,430.20.