Point given outside Derby draw

Godolphin`s Kentucky Derby candidate Express Tour was given what his connections believe to be an ideal draw in stall six at last night`s `Pill Pull` at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

But the draw process did not pass by without incident, as although the pills were drawn at random the slips with the 17 horses` names on them came out in alphabetical order from no.13 Monarchos onwards so that the name of hot favourite Point Given came out last.

At a press conference following the draw Churchill Downs` steward Bernie Hettel confirmed that the draw would stand.

He said: 'Our racing secretary Jerry Botts made the draw and told us that he shuffled the entry slips between six and 10 times.

'There was no protest from anyone in the audience affiliated to any of the horses and the draw stands.'

Tommy Albertrani, assistant to trainer Saeed Bin Suroor, said of Express Tour`s post position: 'We were very satisfied. We would have liked nine or 10 ideally but decided to go inside so that we can chase the speed.'

With this remark Albertrani was referring to the amazing coincidence of the three early-paced horses in the field, Songandaprayer, Millennium Wind and Balto Star respectively getting the one, two and three berths.

Bob Baffert was pleased that he was able to select Congaree`s position second and he chose stall number eight, the same as he picked for his Derby third Indian Charlie in 1998.

Point Given got stall 17, right on the outside of the field.

Afterwards Baffert said: 'My only real choice was where to go with Congaree and as he has enough speed to hold his position we went in the middle which means he`ll be in the fray right from the start.

'With Point Given it didn`t really matter where he was.'

No horse in this field looks better than Pat Day`s mount Dollar Bill, who appears to be a horse coming to himself at the right time.

After the Dallas Stewart-trained colt was placed in stall 10 his handler said: 'I`m very happy with that. As mymentor D Wayne Lukas would say, this is a `now` horse and we`re sure he`ll put in a big run on Saturday.'