Josh likes Super Saver

Every year, I like to take a look at the Kentucky Derby and pick my horses, whether I have money on the race or not. With big name horses like Zenyatta and Endorsement not participating, it’s a wide-open field.

Lookin At Lucky is the odds favorite to win the 136^th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs Saturday, but the horse drew the rail. The inside post could hurt the 3-1 favorite, who took third at the Santa Anita Derby and won the Rebel Stakes and CashCall Futurity.

So I’m going to look elsewhere for my winner. Sidney’s Candy (5-1), Awesome Act (10-1), Devil May Care (10-1), Ice Box (10-1) and Super Saver (15-1) are all tempting.

I’ll pass on Sidney’s Candy, who drew the outside post. It takes a strong horse to win from the outside, am I’m not convinced Sidney’s Candy is the caliber horse that Big Brown was two years ago.

Devil May Care got a good draw at the 11 post, but I’m not sure this filly can perform at the level Rachel Alexandra did at the Preakness in 2009. Rachel Alexandra was an incredibly strong horse that could take on the males in the field.

Ice Box and Super Saver are in tight against the rail and will have to get out to good starts.

Ice Box (who is not the girl for Little Giants by the way) has been running well and won the Florida Derby in March. Awesome Act won at the Gotham Stakes in March.

Super Saver won at the Kentucky Jockey Club in November. He placed third in the Tampa Bay Derby in the March and took second at the Arkansas Derby April 10. I like Super Saver to win the Run for the Roses.

The horse has experienced jockey Calvin Borel riding him. Borel won the Derby and Preakness last year on two different horses (Mine That Bird and Rachel Alexandra). He’s a smart jockey who knows how to race. He’ll have to get his horse through some traffic early though and hang on.

My picks:

1. Super Saver (15-1)

2. Awesome Act (10-1)

3. Devil May Care (10-1)

Sleeper – Jackson Bend (15-1)

Horse racing super-matchup

If you like watching sporting events outside of the major athletic leagues like the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB – NASCAR deserves to be included with the big four as well – you probably turn to sports like tennis, golf and boxing.

The obvious place to turn for non-traditional sports is the Winter Olympics. Opening ceremonies are tonight.

Other non-traditional sports fans were disappointed when Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao agreed to a fight before calling it off over a dispute concerning how frequent drug testing should occur. Pacquiao is now going to fight Joshua Clottey on March 13, the date he was supposed to fight Mayweather. ‘Money’ Mayweather expects to fight Shane Mosely on May 1, which should still be a good fight, but doesn’t carry same weight as a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout.

Where boxing’s big matchup failed, horse racing will come through. It was recently announced to the delight of non-traditional sports fans that Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra will race Zenyatta, the winner of the Breeders Cup Classic, for a $5 million purse. The race will take place April 9 and will be 1-1/8 miles.

Every spring, horse racing fans and casual fans will tune in for the Kentucky Derby. A fewer number of casual fans continue with horse enthusiasts to watch the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont. The Triple Crown draws a lot of viewers to a sport typically watched by a select few. The Breeders Cup draws more spectators as well.

The Rachel Alexandra-Zenyatta race at the Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., deserves to be the most watched race in recent history, but it will need to be properly publicized.

The $5 million purse is a good start to get people interested. The track owner, Charles Cella, said he would only make the large prize available if the two horses agreed to race head-to-head. If one horse backs out, the purse returns to its original $500,000 (it should be noted that if another horse beats the pair, the animal wins the $5 million).

If promoters can hype the matchup enough to get a sizeable audience, the horses will take care of the rest. It will be an exciting race in many regards but determining which filly is the top female horse in racing will be enough of a draw for many. This is a great opportunity for horse racing to get some publicity prior to the Triple Crown stretch.