I don't see Epicenter winning the Louisiana Derby as a foregone conclusion, looking vulnerable in this spot to the likes of Call Me Midnight and Zosos as closers. I'd be willing to take a flyer on Zosos with his connections, having Brad Cox as the trailer and Florent Geroux riding. I doubt we'll see him at 8-1 and figure he'll be priced down to around 4-1 by the wiseguys by post-time. What's interesting about Zosos is that he has a spinter's pedigree on his sire's side. His long-distance pedigree is on his dam's side with his great-grandfather, Holy Bull. Zosos benefited from the slow pace in his second race in that $100K OC over 1 1/16 mi at Oaklawn in Feb., but even if the pace is hot in this race and it should be because of Epicenter, he should have no difficulty staying close because of his sprinter's pedigree. Epicenter might even be the third horse in this field, after being bested by Call Me Midnight in the LeComte at the Fairgrounds in February, with Call Me Midnight trained by local legend K. Desormeaux. Psychologically, Call Me Midnight has the upper hand against Epicenter.

So I'm inclined to play it Zosos, Call Me Midnight and Epicenter. I wouldn't give Rattle N Roll another chance after placing 6th with no excuses in the FOY.

Epicenter isn't the kind of animal I bet, but he's absolutely a legit favorite in this race. The race profiles almost exactly the same as the Risen Star. He figures to have the lead just as easily today. This is probably a pass race for me. Of course, Epicenter can lose, it's just hard to see who could possibly beat him.

If I bet it will probably be a flyer on Galt, who got wiped out in the Holy Bull. The price should be right. I just don't see any other horse in here that will have odds that make a bet make sense. You got 43/1 on Call Me Midnight in the Lecomte and everything in the race went absolutely perfectly for him. He'll probably be about 7/1 today. Not enough for me.

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Don't take it personally.

Don't see Zozos as a closer. 2 career races never more than 3 1/2 lengths off the lead. He'll be on the front end with Epicenter but Epicenter will just keep rolling today

Echo Zulu (not related) is a beast and a single the will bring down the late pick 5

Race 10 will be great...2-Sacred life will be at best 2/1 and not worth it in my opinion, especially off the bench. I like all of the outside horses, mainly the 9 Santin ...the 6 and 7 both Block horses will be closing hard and could blow up the trifecta the 8 Two emmys also can seal the deal at this distance as can the 3 Devani, Browns other entry with the 2...great wagering race

Race 8 the Clara Peters has been popular in the claiming box going from Cox to Sharp to Hartman, who is been on fire...the 8 She Can't Sing has dropped some big prices ($24/$16) last two out. The 9 Lovely Ride is getting faster and absolutely fits here

here's an intriguing social media opportunity for you if you ever want to enter the sphere of "social media influencers" --- find a proper dive bar and get in there pretty good about a hour before last call and attempt to find the hottest avaiable/ish chick without someone looking to pummel you for fucking with their humanoid. tell her you're with some bullshit social media company and you just want to get her reaction to the hottest pickup line from an oft-forgotten corner of the world and she should hopefully be kinda giddy if you've got enough charisma to sell her on what you're about to do.

then you simply tell her the line i quoted from the end of your last post. be sure to make sure you're filming your dictation of the line and her face as she hears it and the universe collectively kicks her right in the tits/c*nt/howeveryouwannasayit as she tries to figure out what the fuck you just told her and while you're mining that gold jump back in and be like "clearly you're not into horse racing.... what would you do if you had a nice horse? ride around the countryside to try and try to be more beautiful than the horse, or get that motherfucker ready to enter the game of life and make me some money for the upkeep and expenses with the promise of a sexual wonderland before its slow d/evolution into glue.... and if she hasn't stormed off in protest of your unprovoked raiding of her universe with your weird ass antiquated bullshit, welp, just drop a fine A- non-sequitur before you cut out and then uhhh.... shit, how the fuck can we get the 6-12 demo interested in going to OTBs later in life? questions i've never asked before right now, for sure.

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The 10th had to work out for you, nice call!!!

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

I love me my NOLA!

Thank you Mr. Hawg

What a beast Epicenter is. He has to be the Derby favorite now.

You can't knock Zosos' effort at all, who stepped up $900K in class in only his third race to run a big one against the more seasoned horse.

Brad Cox and Geroux may have made a tactical error sending Zosos out to the lead. He may have done better from a stalking position than having to hold onto that lead down the stretch when he was tiring at the end. I think everyone must have been surprised at how Zosos outran Epicenter early on, because I can tell you that Epicenter projected dominantly in E1 and E2 against the field.

Maybe we'll get a rematch in the Fla. Derby between these two, another Thrilla in Manila.

They used that race to teach him how to come from behind horses and he passed the test. I'm not convinced he's beating a whole lot though.



For me, the biggest question going into that race was why they waited so long to start her this year. Even assuming she was going to win and secure the points she needs for the Oaks, that's cutting it a little short on prep to do that without the horse forcing them to do it.

I'd keep my eye on the horse that finished second. There's almost always a big front end bias on the Fairgrounds dirt and I think it was particularly the case yesterday.

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Don't take it personally.