Ellipses

The Kentucky Derby is 10 days away. Over at Pajiba, I review The First Saturday in May, a documentary about six horses on the road to the 2006 Kentucky Derby. . . . The New York Times has started a blog about this year's Triple Crown. Worth checking out. . . . On YouTube, some generous soul has compiled the stretch runs of every Kentucky Derby from 1968-2006, in two installments. The first runs from 1968-1986. The other takes up from there. I could have done without the incessant soundtrack of "My Old Kentucky Home" plaing faintly in the background, but I shouldn't complain about such a gift. I was struck most by 1989, when Sunday Silence won it despite running all over the track down the stretch, and 1996, when you could watch it three or four times and still not think Grindstone got there at the wire. But he did.