Curtis Paynter --- regarded by many in the Baffert camp to be as good as Bodemeister only a few weeks ago --- draws off to a big win in 1:42.98 for 8.5 furlongs.

This is going to be a fun day today -- two races and probably one variant split already. The track remains to look fair ... and the overall speed of it appears a lot closer to par than it did an hour ago. Would like to know how much work was done to it between the second and fourth.

Dixie will be shown on NBC's alternate video stream - no audio.

FU NBC. That is all.

Wow. Thought Bodemeister was home free at the top of the stretch. It looked like a huge margin back to third.

No excuses there. Track, as Baffert said about 13 times, was playing a little slower than usual today, but Bodemeister got to run his race and still couldn't hold off I'll Have Another.

It was around 10 lengths back to Creative Cause, who ran pretty much the same race he always runs.

It's should be a big figure.

P.S. - still don't get the Went the Day Well love.

So it begins...

Ya, California based horses suck

I love Larry Culmus, but how great would Tom Durkin been in that call???

I knew he was done when I saw how close he was to the pace.

He's an Ice Box type if you want to be a little kind and a Make Music For Me type if you want to be a jerk about it.

Larry Callmiss is so plain vanilla and he was screeching at the end of the call. Tom Durkin is and always will be the king of the triple crown callers

I completely agree about Larry, it's just that Tom Durkin has the ability to give you chills by his call alone. The Ferdinand/Alysheba call gives me goosebumps to this day.

That race didn't need an announcer to make it exciting. Larry is a cool customer who rarely screams. I thought the call was pro and the drama was provided by the race itself.

Durkin would've called the winner Itsagoodtendollars. And wished he had ten dollars on him.

I saw nothing wrong with Larry's call. Nothing.

For the record, I thought Larry was great!!! Nothing wrong with his call, just kind of miss the emotion of Tom. No knock on anyone. Actually says a lot that Larry did sort of lost his voice in the stretch call, the race was just that good.

I agree.

You just (completely) agreed with a poster that referred to him as Larry Callmiss and said he is plain vanilla n was screechy. Not that i care one iota, but you cant have it both ways.

Actually, I can. This is a race caller who is normally plain and vanilla, but became screechy and emotional during a race. That's how exciting the race was. This happens, regardless of how we spell his name.

Who claimed California horses suck? Sounds like you have an inferiority complex.