No Derby for Lenny

Lentenor finished a disappointing fourth in the Florida Derby and was, I think, done in by the fast pace. They went the first quarter in 23 seconds and change--which is pretty fast. He lay toward the back of the pack after breaking well, and held his own along the rail, but he got beaten by faster horses.

Icebox, a 20 to 1 shot won the race with an impressive closing move down the stretch. He came back covered in dirt, so you have to believe he didn't have the smoothest of trips, but he certainly closed impressively to take the victory by a nose from Pleasant Prince.

Rule really ran out of gas--stopped about halfway down the stretch and Radiohead went really wide and finished nowhere. I would think that Rule will certainly aim for the Kentucky Derby and you can bet that both Icebox and Pleasant Prince will join him.

I'm not sure it was the best group of three year olds running at the moment, but they are all clearly further along than Lenny at this present time. Can Lenny race with these big boys? Yes, I do think he can, but don't count on it until he gets an allowance win (at Keeneland) under his belt.

As they say, all good things in due time. I do believe, Lenny is a dirt horse, and will probably make his next start on that surface. I also think Alan Garcia waited a little too long to ask Lenny to run and also that he did not have the greatest trip along the rail. In his defense, it is hard to swing a horse wide when he is in the 2 post and given that Lenny was coming from 10th, that would have been a lot of horses for him to go around.

Will he race in a Triple Crown race? I don't know. It's important to remember that he has not been off the board once in all his starts. He's a nice racehorse who has yet to come into his own or catch a break. A lot can happen between now and then. Lets see how things pan out, but for what its worth, I don't think the Kentucky Derby winner was among those who ran in the Florida Derby.