DRAWN OUT

Next year, they should invite Anne Robinson.

The post-position draw for the 127th Kentucky Derby was held Wednesday evening and, as has been the case for several years, what could have been a simple five-minute procedure was turned into a splashy one-hour television production.

Staged in the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs, the show desperately needed some of Robinson’s acerbic wit: “Bob Baffert, you are the weakest link.”

As it turned out, Baffert’s Point Given didn’t get much of a break in the draw. The Santa Anita Derby winner will start Saturday’s race from the outside No. 17 spot, in the auxiliary gate.

Nonetheless, the chestnut son of 1995 Derby winner Thunder Gulch was made the 9-5 favorite by track handicapper Mike Battaglia.

Afterward, Baffert was more philosophical than satisfied, but he was pleased that his other horse, Congaree, was made the second favorite at 5-1 and will break from the No. 8 slot.

” It’s not the perfect post,” Baffert, who picked 14th in the random drawing, said of Point Given’s position. “I didn’t want to be in the 17, but I’d rather be in the 17 than the one. If I had the one, I’d be throwing up right now.”

Trainers avoided the three inside positions at all costs and they were the final three selected. It was Songandaprayer trainer John Dowd’s bad luck to have the 17th pick and end up on the extreme inside.

“I wanted to be outside somewhere,” Baffert continued, “but I really didn’t have a choice. You can’t worry about it. I’ve taken the first pick [in the past] and gotten wiped out. You have to have the horse. They win the races because they have the heart and stamina, the good horses.”

The first out of the gate is likely to be Spiral Stakes and Arkansas Derby winner Balto Star, whose trainer, Todd Pletcher, picked 15th and had to settle on the No. 3 hole.

“Considering we picked 15th, I thought it was about as good as we could have done,” Pletcher said. “The No. 1 post is the worst post. You kind of break into the turn, so the one [horse] is looking for room so he’s probably going to come out into the two.

“We’ve got two speed horses inside of us and then we’ve got two horses outside of us that don’t show much speed, so maybe we’ve got a little room once we get out of there.”

Just inside of Balto Star will be Blue Grass Stakes winner Millennium Wind, the joint third choice at 6-1 with Monarchos.

Trainer David Hofmans had wanted to be much wider but put a good face on it.

“We would have liked to have had the 10, that’s the post position that’s won the Derby the most [since 1973],” he said. “We’re not the fastest horse, so somebody will cross over in front of us, we hope. And that’s what we’re looking for.”

Jockey Laffit Pincay probably will have his work cut out trying to keep Millennium Wind from taking off with the speed horses, however.

Monarchos, meanwhile, will start from post 16 in the auxiliary gate, which has produced four of the last six Derby winners.

That brought a broad smile from trainer John Ward.

“I’ve said all week 15 is probably what I wanted, but I’m totally satisfied out there,” he said. “What [jockey] Jorge Chavez wants is a good clean break and not getting interfered with for the first eighth of a mile.

“We’ve got Eddie Delahoussaye inside of us [on Jamaican Rum] and we’ve got Gary Stevens outside of us [on Point Given]. I think it’s great. I feel very comfortable.

“You look at how the draw wound up and all the blazing speed is down inside and has got to go, and the horses that look like routers are going to be outside. It’s going to develop into an interesting event.”

Nick Zito had the first pick and selected the No. 9 hole for A P Valentine, initially incorrectly called AP Indy by announcer Dave Johnson.

“A P Valentine doesn’t have the gait that Point Given has, but at the same time he’s got a good burst of speed,” Zito said. “I didn’t want him on the inside and I didn’t want him way outside, so this was a good pick. I hope so.”

Johnson’s minor faux pas was the least of the draw’s worries.

Supposedly random, with the horses picked first at random and then assigned random numbers in which their trainers would select a post position, it didn’t quite work out that way.

The horses’ names came out pretty much in reverse alphabetical order. It was left to Bernie Hettel, Churchill Downs’ chief steward, to reassure everyone that it had all been on the up and up.

Jerry Botts, Churchill Downs’ vice president and racing secretary, was the man who drew the entries.

“He originally assembled the entries in alphabetical order,” Hettel said. “It is his recall that he shuffled that group of 17 entries somewhere between six and 10 times.”

So what were the odds that they would come out more or less in reverse alphabetical order?

“I think there is a mathematical possibility to this, albeit pretty great,” Hettel said. “I’m not a mathematician. Jerry has been a racing official for over 30 years, I would think. This is certainly not the first race he’s drawn or the last he’ll draw. That’s just the way it came out.

“No horse owner or trainer or anybody affiliated raised any query or question or did any kind of flag waving or raise any protest.”

Zito had the last word.

“I was following it at first, but being a horse trainer, they lost me after the second pick,” he said.

Anne Robinson would have been proud.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

KENTUCKY DERBY

at Churchill Downs,

Saturday, Channel 4

(Coverage begins 2 p.m.)

THE DRAW

The field, in post position order and odds:

1. Songandaprayer: 20-1

2. Millennium Wind: 6-1

3. Balto Star: 8-1

4. Thunder Blitz: 30-1

5. Fifty Stars: 50-1

6. Express Tour: 15-1

7. Arctic Boy: 50-1

8. Congaree: 5-1

9. A P Valentine: 15-1

10. Dollar Bill: 10-1

11. Talk Is Money: 50-1

12. Startac: 50-1

13. Invisible Ink: 30-1

14. Keats: 30-1

15. Jamaican Rum: 50-1

16. Monarchos: 6-1

17. Point Given: 9-5

Winners by Post Position

Number of winners each post position has produced in the Kentucky Derby since 1900:

PP Wins

1: 12

2: 9

3: 8

4: 10

5: 10

6: 6

7: 7

8: 8

9: 4

10: 9

11: 3

12: 3

13: 3

14: 2

15: 3

16: 2

17: 0

18: 1

19: 0

20: 1