Monday notes: Clean your own saddle

Expect a bit of acrimonious controversy to bubble up at Aqueduct this week when a festering dispute between jockeys and their valets spills into public.

Jockeys, who apparently believe they should actually pay for nothing including personal service, want out of the commission paid to valets, five percent of earnings, while still expecting saddles to be cleaned and carried to and from the saddling enclosure, boots polished, laundry done and other personal tasks to be completed at the expense of others, probably the management, which now contributes a small salary to the equation. Stay tuned.


Derby field in flux

The weekend’s preps for the Kentucky Derby, specifically the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, have both muddled the picture sufficiently to attract the attention of owner Rick Porter, who is now considering his very good three-year-old filly, Eight Belles, as a prospective starter. The Blood-Horse reports that after reviewing the latest performance data and conferring with trainer Larry Jones, he may opt to enter Eight Belles, winner of the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn, in both the Kentucky Oaks and the Derby. She has $308,650 in graded stakes earnings, easily enough to put her in the gate if Porter elects to take that direction.

Gayego’s profile is also significantly higher and the decision to test the California-based winner of the Arkansas Derby on dirt in advance of the Derby has resulted in a strong effort at Hot Springs in a race that has produced three champion three-year olds, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and Curlin the last four years.

Lane’s End Stakes winner Adriano, considered a turf/Polytrack horse by his connections, enters the Derby chase after a work on dirt at Churchill Downs over the weekend. Trainer Graham Motion was satisfied after watching Adriano’s exercise that the ground will be compromise the colt. The second interesting development resulting from the work will be the decision made by Edgar Prado, who rode Adriano in the Lane’s End, Tale of Ekati in the Wood and Monba in the Blue Grass. Motion indicated that he will demand a decision almost immediately.

Hey Byrn, winner of the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park over the weekend, is another new face in the frame. He finished third behind Big Brown in the Florida Derby, an effort better than it appears on paper, and was won the Holy Bull convincingly. Where that puts relative to others is unclear at this point, but who knows exactly where any of these horses are at this point?