So, you got a better idea?

In each of the last three years, full fields of 20 have contested the Kentucky Derby. Invariably, a horse or two is excluded from the starting lineup, but none comes to memory that qualifies as a miscarriage of propriety resultant from the rule that establishes earnings in graded stakes as the deciding factor.

In the last 20 runnings of the Derby, only the last three have been contested by the maximum number of runners. Four, in 2000, 1999, ’96 and ’95, had 19 starters, some reduced by post-entry declarations, and three, 2004, ’02 and 1992, had 18.

The earnings rule will inevitably be the factor that excludes a few horses otherwise destined to be 50-1, comes under fire. Dennis of Cork and Big Truck sit on the bubble at the moment, both coming off poor efforts in races crucial to their hopes for entry. Neither has won a major race. Big Truck, a starter in four graded races, won the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby but has finished no better than fourth above that level and finished 11th of 12 in the Blue Grass. Blame the Polytrack. But humans made the decision to run at Keeneland. Denis of Cork won the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes in Arkansas, shipped to Chicago for the Illinois Derby and finished fifth. His owner laments the decision, but he knew the rules. Would he have performed more efficiently in the Arkansas Derby? Who knows? Gayego ran very well that day.

When a list is compiled of life’s great injustices, elimination of a horse or two from the Kentucky Derby based on the current rule will not make the compilation.

Some critics harbor the belief that earnings accumulated at age two should not be considered, a curious notion that begs dismissal. This would only penalize precocity and lessen interest in two-year-old racing that is a major focus of the late summer and autumn. A graduated point system based on placement in graded races would mirror the result of the current rule, since purses earned in qualifying stakes are for the most part graduated by grade.

The current rule saddles the owner and trainer with the onus of managing a racing campaign carefully and rewards participation in major graded races for two-year-olds, an ingredient essential to the foundations of many horses who are prominent at age three and common to the campaigns of horses who reach the first Saturday of May with credentials sufficient to gain entry and have a reasonable expectation of success.

Tale of Ekati strong in Keeneland breeze

Tale of Ekati appeared quite comfortable Wednesday morning when he worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 at Keeneland, second-fastest of 12 other works at the distance. Video of important works posted on the Keeneland website is the greatest advance in dissemination of information since the founding of the Daily Racing Form. The Wood Memorial winner had good energy while under restraint throughout the move.

Trainer Barclay Tagg will ship Tale of Ekati and stablemate to Churchill Downs on Saturday, a radical departure from his established pattern of shipping at last available opportunity. While both have been training on Polytrack at Keeneland for most of the month, they have established dirt form, but Tagg’s decision to ship early into the teeth of the media gridlock next week – he keeps track of stupid questions – suggests that his experience with Showing Up and Nobiz Like Shobiz since his successful late arrival with Funny Cide in 2003 has led to the conclusion that fencing with gaggles of reporters is worth gaining a degree of familiarity with the track at Churchill.