Pray For All Other Kentucky Derby Horses: Highly Motivated Is A Stoolie And Now My Favorite Horse In The Race

And just like that all the work I've done starting to handicap this race has gone out the window. Highly Motivated is a stoolie. You can't cap that. He immediately has to be the favorite based on this picture and this picture alone. There's plenty to like with the horse too. He's a Chad Brown horse, he has Javier Castellano as his jockey, he won the Nyquist at Keeneland last year and finished second in the Bluegrass Stakes this year. And again, he's a Stoolie! Look at that picture, it's beautiful. 

I know Chad Brown is a turf monster, but he's a step ahead of everyone else. He made sure to request to sit by Bob Baffert and get the secret to winning the Derby. 

Chess not checkers. 

Highly Motivated is coming from the 17 spot which means it's time to make history. No horse has ever won from the 17 post. Hell the last time the 17 spot came in the money was Forty Niner in 1988. But if there's something I trust to make history it's a Stoolie horse. Impossible to lose when you have an entire army behind you. He's already pushed Essential Quality to the limit in the Bluegrass Stakes: 

He's going to have to run a similar race. He's gotta get out front early, especially from the outside. Set the pace and see what happens. I'm not too worried about the distance with Highly Motivated either. It's just going to be having to get in the right spot out of the gate in that 20 horse field. All I know is I'm now in on Highly Motivated 100%.