Teuflesberg

What's a good blog without heavy doses of self-promotion?

I would like to call your attention to the Feb. 6 Racing Dispatch Derby Poll, in which the forgotten Teuflesberg received only 16 points to place 38th. Now scroll down and see who had him ranked 15th that week, before he won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn and thrust himself into the middle of the Kentucky Derby picture.

This son of a gun showed a ton of heart at Saratoga last summer, nearly upsetting the Grade I Sanford over Scat Daddy (lost by a nose in a headbob). Trainer Jamie Sanders told John Lies of The Saratoga Special (and LS track announcer) at that time about how she used to gallop Teuflesberg's dam when she worked for Nick Zito, which was part of the reason she wanted Teuflesberg so badly and felt lucky to get him at auction for the bargain-basement price of $9,000. Sanders remembered what a fighter the dam was as a filly and commented then how Teuflesberg was the same way.

It was that memory that caused me to bet him in an allowance race last fall, I think at Churchill. I was at home in New Orleans watching it on TVG with my dad, who thought I was a genius for picking this horse out of the post parade at something like 9-2. He looked awesome that day, just as determined as he had been at Saratoga but looking more stout and powerful.

So I kept him in my Top 20 all this time, and when I read he scratched from the Fair Grounds stakes race a few weeks ago due to a bad post, that told me they really liked their chances and weren't just in there on a lark. Then he goes and upsets Hard Spun at Oaklawn, another race from this weekend I wish I had been watching.