The Derby Path

Yesterday's three-year-old 1600m race at Ellerslie hasn't changed my thoughts on the Derby greatly.

Thé winner doesn't strike me as a Derby horse. Physically he's come on in leaps and bounds in the last two months but he tends to get on the bit and overrace a little to get a distance at present. A nice family this, one that I've recommended a friend consider buying into at Karaka - although No Fear and his half sister Dutch Strikers form won't have helped us much in terms of her value.

Any horse that fetches 1 million plus as a yearling is obviously no Danny De Vito but Maciano is still going to some animal in 12 months time. He's a chance in the Derby - he'll get the trip on his ear - but he's just a tad immature for mine. Take a look at him around the face and body. The only thing he doesn't have is acne.

Corporal Jones stays near the top of my list. Gee he's a well bodied horse. Not as long as Excellent but he still has a lot of physical resemblence to great stayer. He's relaxed bugger, just what you need to work with going through to a Derby. While he didn't necessarily show the lick he had in his two wins, I still liked the way he got home yesterday, largely under his own steam. Remember the miles would have been going into those legs the last month.

Keyora looked like his trainer after a month on the Gold Coast so I wouldn't read too much into his performance. In saying that I would have liked him to settle better yesterday.

Our Heir Apparent will have benefitted from the run too. He is pretty one-paced though and unless he can find some speed from somewhere I struggle to see him competing with Corporal Jones and Zarzuela. They had the blinkers on yesterday so they must have been expecting something.

I was taken with the run of Roger James filly. She may have finished closer with a clearer passage and didn't lose a lot in comparison with Corporal Jones up the straight. Roger does a great job with staying types at this time of year and isn't afraid to go the Derby way with fillies - Sixty Seconds ran second or third I recall - so I'll be keeping an eye on her progress.

No Emotion would have finished closer with a clearer run too. He's a nice type, in fact the best bodied Savabeel I've yet seen.

I had a peek at the two-year-olds too. Remember this race has been the superior guide to the Million and while I didn't necessarily see any Corsage runs this year, a couple will be competitive on the big night. The winner is strengthening up all the time and will continue to improve. Mark Walker's other runner, the Spartacus gelding, was also a nice run. They tend to go very hard in the Million and some winners have come from well back on the turn - think Vincent Mangano and last year, if Corsage had got one final gap, she probably would have got up.

The Bachelor Duke was another nice run, a pity about the ride. I had a look at his pedigree last night. It's that wonderful speed family of Clever Zoe etc that Waikato Stud have developed so well. I don't think he'll make the field for the Million but he should win a nice race somewhere.