Pros

• Brisnet speed figures have improved every time out since his second race, so he's in form
• Connections trainer Dale Romans, owner Donegal Racing and jockey Kent Desormeaux have Derby experience, having teamed together with Paddy O'Prado in 2010
• Has the same dam, Mining My Own, as 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird

Cons

• With a 20-horse field, this closer will have more traffic to navigate than he did in the Blue Grass Stakes, when he tracked down favorite Hansen to win by 1 1/4
• Most of his success has been on synthetic tracks, not the dirt
• No mare has ever produced two Derby winners

Fun fact

According to Wikipedia, "the Irish dullahan is a type of unseelie fairie. It is headless, usually seen riding a black horse and carrying his or her head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The dullahan's whip is actually a human corpse's spine, and the wagons they sometimes use are made of similarly funereal objects (e.g. candles in skulls to light the way, the spokes of the wheels made from thigh bones, the wagon's covering made from a worm-chewn pall). When the dullahan stops riding, it is where a person is due to die. The dullahan calls out their name, at which point they immediately perish."


Final analysis

Worth a win bet and including in exotics.

Photo: Louisville Magazine/Nicholas Karem