[PatCummings]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...the-blue-grass

I get that when your horse gets a graded win, you look for other graded stakes so I'm not begrudging them the obvious course of action, esp. for a $750,000 race. It's not like they can wait on the sidelines til the Derby with some really expensive 'no no, you take this one, we'll wait.' I was just thinking that if I had a horse that missed out on sufficient Derby earnings because a another horse with no way of getting in finished ahead of mine, I'd be p'od.

Then there's the problem of an embarrassment of riches (well, two promising 3yos who've won something with the word "Derby" in it counts here). The trainer's got Russian Greek too. Was there no way to keep these two apart so the one who's Triple Crown nominated and by Giant's Causeway out of a Grindstone mare would have a better shot at getting the dough without having to deal with the one who's not TC nominated? Does Dorochenko have an ownership interest in either?

Hero of Order was bought for $3,000. It'd be a curious situation if he won 2 big Derby preps and then couldn't enter the race.

If you needed to beat Hero of Order to get to the Derby, and you couldn't, I'd be pissed that my horse was nowhere near as good as I originally thought...not that I didn't make the Derby.