El Camino a Real SHOWdown Test

The Kentucky Derby Prep Season concludes and the $1-million Road to the Kentucky Derby SHOWdown continues this weekend with the El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields and the Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park (click the race name for FREE Brisnet.com Ultimate Past Performances).

It’s a tale of two weeks on the SHOWdown front as last week’s Withers and Lewis Stakes provided little drama in the way of most people advancing with favorites El Kabeir and Classy Class finishing second and third, respectively in the Withers, and top choices Dortmund and Firing Line completing the exacta in the Lewis.

Whereas each pair had more than 80% of the show pool in their respective races, you’ll probably need half the field to make up that much of the El Camino show pool, so attrition is likely among 1,317 still alive for the $1-million on TwinSpires.com, the 49 still alive for $500 in our #TSshowdown competition, and the 11 still alive among #teamTS & #teamCD in the $1,000 friendly rivalry charity competition.

Even if you’re not alive for the $1-million or the $500, there’s plenty of reason to play, as everyone is still alive for the $10,000 consolation pool for hitting the Kentucky Derby, and we’re giving away $20/week on Twitter.

And oh yeah: There’s a Facebook contest, too! We’re giving away up to $100 each week plus an iPad for the person with the most correct show horses through the Kentucky Derby!

Alright, that’s a lot of ways to win something, but there are eight ways to lose: either don’t participate at all or pick one of the seven horses who don’t finish first, second, or third!

We’ll try to avoid that scourge by picking #10 Mischief Clem, who is on the outside, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue based on the At A Glance stats found in each edition of the Brisnet.com The Handicapper’s Edge.

But as I said, this race is no gimme. Danny Zucker can be heard in the Brisnet.com-Predicteform.com Podcast below extolling the virtues of Conquest Typhoon. James Scully, meanwhile, is on Soul Driver, and Frank Angst touted me on Indianaughty. Four people and four different picks means (assuming no dead heat) at least one of us won’t even have his pick hit the board. And that doesn’t even factor Metaboss, the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained trio of Cross the Line, Stand and Salute, and Harmonic, or Ernest Shackleton shipping north for Doug O’Neill