WOW! Congrats on you foal coming. I was at the Derby the year (1971) Canonero II won it. I was on the infield with a couple of rowdy friends from Kentucky who had come up to work at Great Lakes Steel in Ecorse Michigan. It was probably near my 21st birthday because my b/day is May 6. I remember drinking quite a few Little Kings and Orange Julius during the course of the day. We slept in sleeping bags on the grass right near the gate in the early morning hours to be the 1st ones in when the gates opened.
Interesting info about Borel (Borail). Thanks. I'm going to look over the Racing Form and make some selections before the race. I should be at Northville Downs Michigan doing some simulcast betting...this is my kind of race...no clear cut favorite and a lot of horses...but I had too many things to do today around the house.
Also my only live Derby. We were also among the first into the infield. We took a position right by the rail at the 1/8 pole (just in front of the Derby start.) Now that position is completely unavailable. They had to put in a chain link fence to contain @$$holes who might run onto the track. Then they added the turf course, and now there are temporary stands all along the stretch in the infield so no one in the infield has any chance to actually see a horse running through the stretch.
I bet Jim French who ran second. It may have been the only race my then wife to be ever handicapped. She bet Twist the Ax.
ML/NJ