HORSE BETTING

• Super Derby Attracts Less-Than-Splendid Performers

  Posted on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT by Greg Melikov

  
  

  Louisiana Downs launched the Super Derby in 1980. It pitted winners of two Triple Crown races: Kentucky Derby champ and Belmont winner Temperance Hill.
   
  Genuine Risk was the second filly in history to capture the Run for the Roses since Regret in ’15. Temperance Hill defeated Genuine Risk in the Belmont while Preakness victor Codex was injured finishing seventh and never raced again.
   
  The $500,000 Super Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 ¼
  pitted Genuine Risk, also runner-up in the Preakness, and Temperance Hill, who missed Pimlico’s premier race because of a minor injury after skipping the Derby.
   
  The winner: Temperance Hill. Genuine Risk ran second to become the first female to hit the board in all three Triple Crown events.
   
  The last of three Belmont champs to take the Super Derby came in ’96, Editor’s Note, who also was the last winner of a Triple Crown event to score.
   
  The 1980s was Super Derby’s shining decade: Six winners of at least one Triple Crown race were victorious. Sunday Silence triumphed after capturing the Derby and Preakness in ’89, duplicating Alysheba’s feat in ’87.
   
  Tiznow won the ’00 renewal, whipping Belmont victor Commendable en route to the first of two consecutive Breeders’ Cup Classic triumphs.
   
  This year’s field for the 30th running, staged at 1 1/8 miles for the fourth straight year and the seventh time during the 21st Century, isn’t exactly super despite the purse being increased to $750,000. 
   
  Saturday’s likely favorite is Soul Warrior, who defeated Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in the West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Aug. 1.
   
  The son of Lion Heart breezed five furlongs in 1:02 over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track on Monday. He gets a new rider: John Velazquez.
   
  His main challenge might come from Regal Ransom, the UAE Derby victor that worked five furlongs at 59 2/5 at Belmont on Monday. That time might be a bad omen since the son of Distorted Humor breezed 59 1/5 before finishing eighth in the Kentucky Derby.
   
  Other contenders include the one-two-three finishers in the Aug. 15 local prep, the $100,000 Prelude Stakes at 1 1/16 miles: Uno Mas, Electric Alphabet and Red Lead. That was the winner’s first stakes victory.
   
  On Monday, the son of Macho Uno breezed a half-mile in 50 seconds at Churchill Downs. Jockey Shane Sellers, who at 42 resumed his career in July after retiring 4 ½ years ago, retains the mount. Sellers, who recorded more than 4,000 wins, is best known for his memorial rides aboard Skip Away.
   
  Others in the chase: Blamers, victorious in Saratoga’s $80,000 Curlin at the distance, Jamie Theriot aboard; Massone, who captured a Del Mar $80,000 optional claimer at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, with Garret Gomez joining him on the trip from California; and Sumo, winner of Saratoga’s $70,000 Pleasant Colony at 1 1/8 miles on the main track.
   
  How do you pick the winner? As far as I’m concerned, it’s a tossup. My advice: Get out the dartboard and let it the little missile fly while hoping you pick a 3-year-old with attractive odds.