Most observers either loved or hated the 131st Kentucky Derby.
What follows is a breakdown on who thought what and why.
Here's who thought the Derby set racing back 25 years:
Those select few mostly eastern horse race writers who believe that Beyer speed figures predict what's about to happen better than Doppler Radar.
Here's who had a great time:
People who enjoy the best live television camera angle in all of sports, the blimp shot of a horse race. Ground level or even slightly elevated views of a race don't do a rider's skill justice. Hanging over a rail and looking up the track, all a gambler can see are dollar signs. One thing the blimp shot shows is how close together horses find themselves on a turn, touching, even. Also obvious from above is how many times a jockey changes a horse's direction.
And people who enjoyed seeing winning jockey Mike Smith presenting a Top Ten list on Letterman on the subject of how to win a big race at long odds.
And people who realize that it's hard to handicap a race with 20 horses chasing one carrot, people who are comfortable betting $5 under such adverse circumstances.
And people who love small tracks. Playing a cheap claiming race after the Derby can be like taking a few swings at some underhand pitching. The day after the Derby I played a race in which only four horses stood a reasonable chance of winning and almost felt guilty taking their money.
People who have oddball lucky numbers: 10-18-12, somebody with the October 18 birthday would be 93.
People whose dreams fill their screens probably enjoyed the Derby most of all.
A year or so ago, you and a few friends could have split a six pack and thrown in together and you could have taken your mare to Kentucky and you could have gotten a Holy Bull offspring for right around fifteen grand, this, in a day when a $100,000 stud fee can seem like a bargain. The stud fee of $15,000 on Holy Bull as the Kentucky Derby approached said to his supporters and investors, one and all: We're going to have to get real lucky to have a colt of his win this one. A couple of jockeys are going to have to ride into impossible fractions, others will have to have rocks in their heads, not clocks. All the good horses will have to stop and all the fair ones will have to wobble. In which case we just might come from off the pace and find ourselves alone at the end. About the stud fee for Holy Bull: Is having a 50-1 shot to win the Kentucky Derby worth a stud fee of fifteen thousand or so?
I know two people who did exactly that, they cashed in this and sold that and hocked the other and took a decent enough mare to Holy Bull slightly more than a year ago.
They make the group of regular guys who rode a school bus to the big races to watch their horse run look like New England elite.
They got a strapping colt that is just turning gray.
Outside of horse racing, what can the average person do to have a chance to become an integral part of a major sport, get beaten up by one of the starters?
So what if they round up dozens of the highest priced sires and mares and have a party in Dubai.
I know a couple of average guys with a colt in a field, suddenly connected to a Derby winner.
Some horse people do more than dream, they believe the dream.