Furlong Drive Top Races from 2012: #14 Louisiana Derby

Three times a week up to the end of the year, I will be counting down what I thought where the Top 14 races from the year of 2012. So lets kick it off!

The first major prep race was upon us, the Louisiana Derby. The race had hit upon some hard times as they hadn't produced a Derby winner since 1996, still they had runner up Funny Cide and the winner of the race Peace Rules finish first and third in the 2003 KY Derby. This year, it was supposed to be Mark Valeski's turn. Trained by Larry Jones who had won the LA Derby in 2009 with Friesian Fire and ridden by Rosie Napravnik who won the race in 2011 with Pants on Fire, Mark with his stablemate Mr. Bowling was sent off as the post time favorite. The race wasn't filled with much as there where only 2 horses who had a chance to beat the pair. One of them Cigar Street was a nephew of the one and only Cigar, the other Rousing Sermon came in from California to avoid the tough competition there.

A funny thing happened though neither Mark, Mr. Bowling or the two other horses I mentioned won the race. In matter of fact, only Mark and Rousing Sermon made it into the top 3. The top spot was filled by a longshot. To put it into more prospective, this was not just an ordinary longshot, Hero of Order was sent off at odds that where more then 99-1. Lets take a look at his win:



This would be the highlight of Hero of Order's year as he would bomb in the Bluegrass in his next. Although he did finish second in the Iowa Derby behind Hansen. Rousing Sermon would be the only one from this race to make the Derby and was my pick for the race. As for Mark, he won the Peter Pan after being pulled from Derby consideration, only to miss the rest of the year with an injury. He recently started back to get ready for his four year old season.

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