Lookin At Lucky

No matter what he does, Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike) seems condemned always to be the short guy in the back row of the team photo. In the private duel that defines his stud career, moreover, he has to endure Munnings (Speightstown) moving ever closer, year by year, to front and center. These two splendid sires, who started out together at Ashford in 2011, experienced rather typical fortunes last Saturday when dividing the big sophomore tests in New Orleans between them (along with those skilled gentlemen, Brad Cox and Florent...

Given the clamor across social media through the week, one thing was certain heading into Saturday's GII TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby--there was absolutely no chance that Wells Bayou (Lookin At Lucky) was going to go off at anything approaching his morning line of 8-1. Those that backed him were instead forced to swallow a price in the vicinity of 3-1, but the bay did not let them down, treating his 13 rivals to a front-running, 1 1/2-length beating. Exiting the Feb. 17 GIII Southwest S. in which he laid down swift...

Right, that's enough ranting for now. In the course of this series, I've repeatedly professed bewilderment and alarm over the damage to the Thoroughbred gene pool threatened by a witless stampede towards unproven newcomers, and the no less puerile impatience with which they are promptly abandoned. But we won't revisit those complaints today. Embarking on this final instalment, dealing with those stallions talented or lucky enough to have come out the other side with a viable stud career in Kentucky, we'll just offer one simple consolation. Because if you're one...