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Weekend Winners Club

Apr 24 2017

2017 Kentucky Derby Final 1/4 Mile Times in Contender Preps

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Monday, April 24
Churchill Downs
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We’re doing things a bit differently and will be sharing some new tidbits of information every day leading up to the Kentucky Derby.
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One of the factors in the Derby Grid is the Final 1/4 mile times in the final preps of the Derby contenders, which is used by serious handicappers.
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The official criteria is “Ran final 1/4 mile in less than 26 seconds,” but like all of the other criteria, 1 missed criterion doesn’t eliminate the horse.
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For example, Irish War Cry came in at 26.1, which is real close and shouldn’t be used to disqualify him. However, I am throwing out all horses that were above 26.5 altogether, as I didn’t like them to begin with, and there’s not way they’ll hold up in the final quarter of the 10 furlong Derby.
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Fortunately, this crop is quite competitive, and the average time they scored was 25.7. The winner of this contest is Sonneteer, who many of us believe is the best closer in the field. He came home in an astounding 23.9 in the Arkansas, and would be the only maiden in the field if he gets into the race.
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Sonneteer is the fastest closer in the Derby field if he makes it

Sonneteer is the fastest closer in the Derby field if he makes it

OK enough babble. Here are the numbers:
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Rank Horse Final 1/4
1 Sonneteer 23.94
2 Gunnevera 24.23
3 Always Dreaming 24.53
4 Lookin At Lee 24.54
5 Classic Empire 24.81
6 Hence 24.99
7 Thunder Snow (IRE) 25.02
8 State of Honor 25.13
9 Girvin 25.3
10 Practical Joke 25.39
11 Patch 25.4
12 Irap 25.54
13 Malagacy 25.56
14 McCraken 25.69
15 Untrapped 25.89
16 J Boys Echo 25.91
17 Irish War Cry 26.1
18 Gormley 26.6
19 Tapwrit 26.74
20 Cloud Computing 26.84
21 Battalion Runner 26.86
22 Battle of Midway 27.03
23 Royal Mo 27.06
24 Fast and Accurate** 27.33

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As you can see, if we’re talking about closing speed, Fast and Accurate needs a name change.

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