Proud Spell seemed to easily outclass the field in the Oaks, but I’m still not predicting it will be so easy for Derby favorites. For your amusement (and so that I can keep track of them), here is the entire Superfecta Household Derby Investment (note that some of these were not approved by Management):

• Adriano across the board
• Eight Belles to win
• Eight Belles across the board
• Tale of Ekati to win
• Visionaire to win
• Court Vision to win
• Colonel John/Z Fortune exacta box
• Colonel John/Visionaire exacta box
• Visionaire/Z Fortune exacta box
• Visionaire/Pyro exacta box
• Visionaire/Big Brown exacta box
• Pyro/Big Brown exacta box
• Eight Belles/Pyro exacta box
• Eight Belles/Pyro/Big Brown tri box
• Visionaire/Z Fortune/Colonel John/Big Brown tri/super box

Let the losing begin — and come on, Einstein!

1989, the first year I attended the Derby in person, is where it all went wrong for me — as a rather overenthusiastic consumer of the Easy Goer Kool-Aid, I was rather miffed when he finshed behind Sunday Silence; I didn’t really appreciate the history-making rivalry I’d been lucky enough to witness until some years later (the appalling weather on the day didn’t help either). I was still close in 1990, backing Summer Squall to a 2nd-place finish, but clearly my magic touch was wearing off – my 1991 pick, Hansel, was 10th. In 1992, I actively disliked Arazi and was not at all surprised to see him finish up the track, but I certainly didn’t pick Lil E. Tee either. I had no favorite in 1993 — a poor showing.

In 1994 I was back in ‘favorite’ mode, only to see Holy Bull throw in one of his few poor performances. My ‘back-the-filly’ fallback didn’t help much with Serena’s Song (16th) in 1995, and even the return of my one-time crush, Chris Antley, didn’t help Louis Quatorze (26th) in 1996. I had nothing for 1997, liked Artax (13th) the following year, but was pretty fairly about Charismatic going into the 1999 Derby. I was happy to see Chris Antley back again, finally with a win on a horse I’ve always felt was underrated (especially since he was by my 1990 pick, Summer Squall), but he wasn’t my firm favorite at post time as I was having an indecisive year.

2000 was the year of Fu Peg hype and I wanted no part of him. My pick, The Deputy, finished well up the track in 14th. I recall being wary of Point Given due to the excessive puffery surrounding him, but I can’t claim to have had the foresight to have picked Monarchos (although I very much enjoyed Jim Squires‘ book about him). Perfect Drift rewarded my belief in him by finishing 3rd behind War Emblem (although I clearly picked the horse with more long-term racing value). I was swept up in the Empire Maker tumult in 2003, but I also chose Peace Rules – at least I was in the money with both.

I finally hit my stride again with Smarty Jones in 2004 – I picked him in January that year and never wavered. I’m still not entirely convinced that Giacomo won the 2005 Derby (I much prefer his brother, Tiago) since clearly Afleet Alex (3rd) should have, and of course I picked Barbaro. I had nothing much last year since the Street Sense build-up put me off – I backed Hard Spun and Nobiz Like Shobiz, but did have a few bets that featured the eventual Derby victor (as well as Curlin). Clearly, I’ve neither gained nor lost much by either jumping on or avoiding prohibitive-favorite bandwagons, which suggests that I have no need to do it this time around either. Given this year’s field (and my difficulties in cheering for Rick Dutrow — I’d love Big Brown if he were trained by just about anyone else), I’ll be looking for a little value – specifics to come after the post position draw.

Beyond the Derby trail, Chelokee makes a welcome return on Friday in the Alysheba on the Oaks undercard (and I’ll have more Oaks thoughts after the Derby draw as well) and it’s nice to see that Big Truck and Cowboy Cal are running for charity. Also of note is the news that Terlingua, dam of Storm Cat, was put down on Tuesday at the age of 32.

Did we mention that Eight Belles and Proud Spell have a parrot?

The real news this week is across the pond; Royal Ascot begins today. This year’s installment features the 200th running of the 2 1/2 mile Gold Cup — wouldn’t it be nice if we had such a fixture? While there is always a major European element, there promises to be a strong contingent from Australia shipping in for the King’s Stand Stakes (a G2 sprint) — Miss Andretti is favored (obviously there are no qualms about girls-against-boys here) but will have a tough race against fellow Antipodean (and last year’s winner) Takeover Target.

The St James’s Palace Stakes features Cockney Rebel and the Queen Anne Stakes heralds the return of George Washington. Of Gorgeous George, the BBC remarks:

His ability cannot be questioned but his quirky behaviour can cause some moments of concern which trainer Aidan O’Brien hopes will not be the case here, especially with filly Red Evie among his rivals.

If you are lucky enough to get some TV coverage for it, enjoy – the closest I’ll get is having a Pimm’s in hono(u)r of the occasion.

It’s a great undercard as well — the Northern Dancer features Chelokee; Zanjero and Sam P. (both hopelessly overmatched in the Derby) will be returning to action as well although I suspect Chelokee is in a different class.

The ladies are in action too; Bushfire returns in the Ogden Phipps, facing off against Take D’Tour, who won last year’s installment. Asi Siempre, Balance and Ermine are all in action in the Fleur de Lis. The Mint Julep and the Regret are on the undercard as well; the Regret features Dreaming of Anna back on the turf.

There’s turf excitement away from Churchill Downs as well — the Colonial Turf Cup (the first leg of the under-publicized Grand Slam of Grass; it seems odd that the other legs, beginning with the Virginia Derby, will be televised, but this first race in the series is largely ignored) and Soldier’s Dancer is favored — I am curious to see how the European-bred horses will run, particularly Mysterious Peintre.

Finally, in Horse Racing Marketing Land, I have yet to see any officially-licensed Rags to Riches merchandise — but you can always pick up things like this cell phone ‘purse’ on eBay. Here’s another hot tip (for which read ‘no-brainer’) for horse racing’s marquee events: put out a t-shirt of the winner complete with the date and winning time. This is not difficult to mock up ahead of time and you should be able to buy them from the NTRA or on the host track’s website within a few days of the race. Again, baseball figured this out a long time ago…

“It’s the same thing; just turn left. It’s a racetrack. There’s nothing different but the sharp turns. It’s like a bull ring.

But there’s a lot to enjoy on Saturday before the Preakness — here are my thoughts on the undercard:

Baltimore City Turf Sprint
Unbridled Sidney is my pick, based on my usual girls-against-the-boys bias. And hey, she can run.
Edit: OK, she decided to go yesterday instead (and very nicely too). So I’ll stick with Cherokee Spirit.

Hirsch Jacobs
This should be exciting. I’m backing Southwestern Heat (pictured; how can you not, if you’re a fan of his mother?) but I also see good runs in store from Hobbitontherocks and Street Magician. Like Mom Like Sons is great on Polytrack, but I don’t think this will be his day.

Gallorette
While I like Precious Kitten, Aunt Henny could start the day off well for Michael Matz; Grigorieva is not one to overlook either.

Maryland Breeders’ Cup Sprint
For no particularly good reason, I’m high on Celtic Innis at 10-1.

Barbaro
As the favorite for both sentimental and talent reasons, Chelokee looks likely to win here — but don’t expect to make any profit on it. In this instance, that’s fine.

Dixie
Einstein has only had two weeks’ rest, but should still be tough (and I always like rooting for a horse trained by Helen Pitts); Cosmonaut and Silver Tree are the obvious choices if he’s coming up a little short.

William Donald Schaefer
Hesanoldsalt mixes it up with Sunriver and Flashy Bull; Sunriver has never quite lived up to his potential and I don’t see Saturday being the day (particularly if it rains) — but it could happen. Hesanoldsalt seems the way to go.

The smallish field (seven confirmed starters out of a possible eight or nine, now that Chelokee is more likely for the Barbaro Stakes, although I think Starbase would have been more interesting than Flying First Class) means that it’s being billed as something of a match race between Hard Spun and Street Sense, with the implication being that Street Sense is not likely to get a nice rail trip. I think that Hard Spun ran a great race in the Derby; he and Street Sense both had a good amount of distance back to Curlin. However, I think what is being ignored by some is just how quickly Street Sense moved from 19th place to first — it was a great move and in a field of seven(ish), he doesn’t need to be on the rail to do it. He seems to accelerate on turns, so while Pimlico may be Pino Country, I think Street Sense is going to relish the tight turns (whether you believe in them or not).