Joe Nevills, sales editor of the Daily Racing Form and columnist for Arabian Finish Line, analyzes the Kentucky Derby field in post position order in the form of haiku - a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
#1 - Lookin at Lee
Closer from Oaklawn
Hasn't won since Ellis Park
Wait for softer fields
#2 - Thunder Snow
Global vagabond
Can run on any surface
But doomed by his post
#3 - Fast and Accurate
His best dirt Beyer
Would win a nice allowance
At a county fair
#4 - Untrapped
Minor check-getter
Vanished in last Oaklawn prep
This pool is too deep
#5 - Always Dreaming
High-upside prospect
Most dominant last effort
Feels like a bounce threat
#6 - State of Honor
Knows how to cash checks
By hanging on to placings
After ceding leads
#7 - Girvin
Leading point-getter
Grapples with ill-timed hoof woes
Don't expect Big Brown
#8 - Hence
Was his last that good
Or the rest that average?
Not buying the hype
#9 - Irap
Trainer Doug O'Neill
Didn't grow his Derby beard
All you need to know
#10 - Gunnevera
Will stage a late charge
Can scrap it out for a check
If the clouds don't part
#11 - Battle of Midway
Couldn't hang on in
Slowest Santa Anita
Derby in three score
#12 - Sonneteer
Fewer winning trips
Than stablemate Patch has eyes
That fact won't change here
#13 - J Boys Echo
Was his big Gotham
The true showcase of his class
Or an outlier?
#14 - Classic Empire
High-maintenance star's
Two toughest rivals could be
His head and the crowd
#15 - McCraken
A Blue Grass bummer
But Churchill Downs is his yard
Don't give up on him
#16 - Tapwrit
High-dollar yearling
Hype deflated at Keeneland
Excused or exposed?
#17 - Irish War Cry
Stellar Wood triumph
Makes his Fountain of Youth choke
Just so confounding
#18 - Gormley
Someone had to win
That chug-fest in his last prep
Is there one more gear?
#19 - Practical Joke
Standout 2-year-old
Couldn't pass flagging Irap
That's hard to ignore
#20 - Patch
Having just one eye
Not as big a handicap
As Apollo's curse
#21/AE - Royal Mo
Wrong side of bubble
But it's hard to get too jazzed
From pokey last start
#22/AE - Master Plan
Last horse in by points
Took an unorthodox route
To watch from the bench
Prediction
Home-track advantage
Carries McCraken home first
Then "War Cry," Tapwrit