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5/16/05... Andy Beyer has helped revolutionize racing. His career as a handicapper, writer and re-interpreter of the game's maxims are unequaled in the sport's history. I have read all of his book's and carry unbridled respect for his brilliance and accomplishments. But after Saturday's Kentucky Derby, a race in which he has a horrible recent wagering record, he displayed a jaundiced and cynical side in a post-race column ("By Any Standard, Derby a Dud") that diminishes the race, the game, the winner, his connections, and Beyer himself.
In a Washington Post-Daily Racing Form piece filled with bitter persiflage toward Giacomo, Beyer called the race a "crashing anticlimax", which "will rank among the worst Derbies of recent decades." In a vitriolic spew, Beyer decried the field as having "no quality", featured a group of horses that won slow prep races; that the winner "out-staggered his rivals" to the finish; and that the pricey exacta pair of 50-1 Giacomo and 71-1 Closing Argument were "undistinguished".
Three weeks earlier off his smashing Wood Memorial triumph, Beyer said of Bellamy Road that "no horse in years has gone into the 3-year-old classics with such an advantage in raw talent over the rest of his generation." He also stated that the performance, which earned a 120 in Beyer's own speed figures, was "one of the most stunning and authoritative performances ever delivered in a prep race for the Kentucky Derby."
In addition to the flashy number Bellamy Road carried into the gate at Louisville, Derby starters Afleet Alex (108 in the AK Derby), Greeley's Galaxy (106 in the IL Derby), High Limit (105 in the LA Derby), Bandini (103 in the Blue Grass), High Fly and Noble Causeway (102 and 100 respectively in the FL Derby), all were in possession of the kind of Beyer figures that entrants annually bring to Churchill on the first Saturday in May. In his own Washington Post-Daily Racing Form Derby preview, Beyer specifically mentioned the prep efforts of Afleet Alex, Greeley's Galaxy and High Limit, in addition to Bellamy Road's Wood, as performances indicative of potential Derby winners. But suddenly on Sunday, Beyer decided that those pre-Derby performances were slow prep races...
How can Beyer indict the Class of '05 as having no quality when his own figures stamped them as legitimate contenders for the rose blanket weeks earlier? Beyer adroitly cited the hot Derby pace as having victimized the obvious potential contenders like High Fly and Bellamy Road and referenced the meltdown in Monarchos' 2001 Derby (Songandaprayer, :22.1, :44.4, 1:09.1), when the Top 4 runners through 6f finished 13th, 14th, 16th and 11th. While High Fly, Bellamy Road and Flower Alley faded from the suicidal fractions (10th, 7th and 12th), Closing Argument was able to attend the pace 5th through three-quarters and continue on and nearly win. Isn't that a sign of quality?
Also in his preview, Beyer had specifically laid out the potential for Bellamy Road to be burned by a hot Derby pace. If that was to transpire, he indicated that Afleet Alex or Sun King were the colts that exuded the kind of class to pick up the pieces. But the fact that it was "undistinguished" Closing Argument and Giacomo that stayed on, clearly irks Beyer. In fact, there was nothing "undistinguished" about the exacta pair. Kiaran McLaughlin's colt had won the Holy Bull over Derby fourth choice High Fly in February earning a 98 Beyer; was gamely competitive against some quality juveniles in 2004; and entered the Derby having never finished out of the money in seven career starts. Giacomo too had never failed to earn a check in his seven starts; was second by a length to the 2004 Eclipse winning two year old (Declan's Moon) in the Hollywood Futurity; and was averaging 95 in Beyer speed figures since that '04 season-ender.
The reality is that Beyer had likely not been following the Derby Trail too closely. If he had, he'd have seen that the Santa Anita Derby contingent had collectively run the kind of :12+ eighths that frequently play well in the Derby: especially in a Derby where there is the potential for a pace collapse. He also would have seen that horses coming out of Gulfstream like Closing Argument deserved special attention based on the string of strong performances that Hallandale exports have been putting up around the country.
His attack on the Derby top two is an especial insult to the work of John Shirreffs and McLaughlin. If Beyer had been paying attention, he'd have been aware of Shirreffs foreshadowing work with the excellent filly Hollywood Story. Shirreffs, whose acumen should have been familiar to any accomplished race writer, sent the maiden two year old out to a 21-1 fourth place finish in the 2003 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies before she got her diploma in the Grade I Hollywood Starlet later that fall. He had handled Giacomo similarly, unafraid of aggressively spotting of the colt while allowing him to grow physically and mentally before fine-tuning him for his Derby start.
McLaughlin, a Lexington, KY native, and has built a fine conditioning record as a trainer for the sheiks in Dubai, and upon his return to the U.S. with horses like Bending Strings, Lunar Sovereign, Mustanfar, Seattle Fitz, Soviet Line and Trademark. He was saddling his first Derby starter in front of friends and family, and as a one-time assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, was sure to know how to bring a horse to the Derby prepared for a top effort.
The tote bonanza that Giacomo and Closing Argument ignited with their one-two Derby finish is exactly the kind of score that Beyer built his reputation upon when he was hitting six digit multi-race gimmicks and earning his "$50,000 year at the races". The race and its enormous mutuel results were thrilling to the 150,000 at Churchill, those watching and wagering across the country, and generated wide coverage in the national media. In the past, Andy Beyer would have reveled in a Derby result that delivered payoffs equating to various annual salaries. That he utterly missed Saturday's huge payoffs was no cause for the belittling of the accomplishments of those involved, and indicate that Beyer's interest in the game is now confined to his own wagers. Maybe that's always been his interest.
Steve Byk is a Saratoga, NY-based freelance writer who has run Derbytrail.com since 2003, and whose work has appeared on Blood-Horse.com. His e-mail is sbyk@nycap.rr.com.
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