Wire Players Dirty Dozen Poll Now Out and TBA Week Kicks Off

The sixth edition of the Wire Players Dirt-y Dozen Poll is now out. Almost everything and virtually nothing has been revealed by the prep races I've witnessed and handicapped this Kentucky Derby season, so hence I brought the lovely Detective Turk in to help me decipher the evidence and solve this deepening mystery. The top two remain the same from the fifth edition, and while neither raced, both had bloggers a flutter with their choices in where to run next, their last prep races before heading to Churchill Downs. Looking at Lucky, with a dirt win that answered the question of how he would take to the surface secured in The Rebel, heads to The Great Race Place for the Santa Anita Derby. Trainer Baffert clearly wants to win the Kentucky Derby and he clearly doesn't think running the Santa Anita Derby will hurt his chances. I won't question him, not my place, and perhaps it helps as bettors may be inclined to not make him such a heavy chalk on race day and instead back the last best dirt effort they see. That very well could be our #2 horse, Eskendereya who will take on a nice field of potential Derby contenders and at a minimum, a solid collection of the current 3 YO crop at the Wood Memorial. If Jackson Bend, Awesome Act or Schoolyard Dreams wildly impresses, as did I Want Revenge's stunning poor gate exit and rousing last year's win proves, the winner could be the morning line favorite in Kentucky over a synth prep horse, as was the case with Pioneerof the Nile last year as well.

Wire Players Dirty Dozen Volume VI



TBA Week kicks off now and its our way of highlighting what a resource we are to horse racing fans.

The Turk is a proud member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, a growing collection of voices in the new media talking about horse racing from various angles. Our home web page contains an agregate of not only TBA blogs but blogs and newsfeeds from all over the horse racing world. We also have our TBA standings, a Past Performance engine and a Daily Race Form PP coupon. All good stuff!

We also have a link to our Twitter page. The TBA has over 1,350 followers and there have been over 7,000 tweets to date! If you are like me and need a race winner sooner then the 45 minutes it takes DRF to post a result, Twitter is great for instantaneous results.

We also have a link to our TBA Facebook Page. We have over 850 fans and it's a great place to meet the folks behind the blogs you read.

We also interact well with Bloodhorse.com and provide articles and stories to thier website and we 've recently begun adding a handicap to the Thorofan website.

The TBA is a vibrant collection of individuals with individual ideas and interests related to all facets of horses and horse racing, not only in North America but all over the world. Please come and see what we have to offer.

The Turk is bemused by the collection of runners in the Dirty Dozen poll and will need to consult with Detective Turk to discuss the intimate details of the information. The next version of this poll is the key one with all the major preps completed. You have to wonder what we can expect this year: Perhaps the 12th Triple Crown winner is in this group, who knows.

Have fun, Turk Out!