Early morning on the backside is a time

When the post positions for the Kentucky Derby are drawn and the morning-line odds announced, there is the expectation that some order has been installed on a riot of a horse race. Twenty 3-year-olds, mere adolescents, will go a marathon distance of a mile and a quarter for the first cheap louis vuitton shoes time, before more than 100,000 people, many teary-eyed from either the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home” or mint juleps. But on Wednesday in the Secretariat Room of Churchill Downs, the connections of 20 horses learned from what gate their horses would be breaking Saturday, and little else. The Churchill Downs oddsmaker, Mike Battaglia, made the Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister the morning-line favorite for the 138th running of the Derby. Barely. He will break from the No. 6 post and was assigned odds of 4-1, a smidgen ahead of Union Rags, who will line up two gates inside at 9-2. When asked about his analysis, Battaglia shrugged the shrug of a man who is essentially guessing. He has been setting the Derby morning line since 1975, and this was among his most puzzling. “He ran such a big race,” Battaglia said, referring to Bodemeister’s nearly 10-length romp in Arkansas. He paused, then sighed. “But Union Rags has looked so good here,” he said. “It’s tough to separate the two.” And the gates the two are breaking from did little to define which has an edge. Bodemeister is named for the young son of the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. In March, Baffert had a heart attack in Dubai, where he had horses running in the World Cup. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times, and he is omen-driven and news media-savvy enough to know that a fourth Saturday could be a story line written by the Derby gods. Bodemeister is a precocious colt who so far has broken from the gate as if being shot from a rocket and has led horses around the track as if he were running for his life. Baffert wanted an outside post. Instead, Bodemeister is inside and will have to chase his early running rivals to his outside. The sprinter Trinniberg (50-1) will scoot louis vuitton bracelet for women from the No. 9 post, and last year’s Juvenile champion, Hansen (10-1), will go from the No. 14 hole. “It’s not ideal,” Baffert said. “He’s a young, immature horse.” Bodemeister’s jockey, Mike Smith, glumly agreed. “We’ll play it off the break and see what happens,” he said. “If he’s given the opportunity, he’s going to run well.” Michael Matz won here in 2006 with Barbaro, then saw him break down in the opening strides of the Preakness Stakes. Matz says he believes Union Rags may be a second great horse put in his path. The colt has won four of six races, and the losses, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Florida Derby, were narrow and could be attributed to traffic problems and rough rides. Having a colt that has shown a knack for finding trouble starting inside was not what Matz was hoping for. “I’m not crazy about it,” he said. So which horse was not compromised by his starting position? In No. 14, the white horse Hansen will be the first horse in the auxiliary gate. “We’ve got a little space between the gates,” said the colt’s trainer, Michael Maker. “It couldn’t have gone better.” The undefeated Gemologist is next to Hansen in the No. 15 hole. In the Wood Memorial, Gemologist demonstrated the ability to relax early and pour it on late. He is the third choice in the morning line at 6-1. But to believe anyone has a handle on what is promising to be one of the most wide open renewals of an American classic would be foolish. Early morning on the backside is a time when owners and trainers traffic in half-truths and rumors, a place where humility and mendacity walk hand in hand and you can’t tell which one is leading. Clichés have a home here as well. In the morning, no fewer than Louis vuitton for women shoes 2012 new arrival on sale black six trainers uttered one of the most reliable. “I wouldn’t trade my horse for anyone else’s,” said Patrick Byrne, the trainer of the Florida Derby champion Take Charge Indy (15-1). He was only the first of the chorus.