Whitney 2013: Weekend Open Thread

This weekend's stakes calendar is a bit lighter than last weekend's but the feature race, the Whitney, provides us with a great look at some of the top older males in the country. Today's Whitney Invitational at Saratoga will be broadcast on NBC with coverage beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern and post time scheduled for 5:45. (Read below for another wonderful post time conflict.)

Out at where the turf meets the surf, Del Mar features the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at a mile and a sixteenth on the Polytrack. Include Me Out, the 7/5 morning line favorite, is back to defend her title against a field of eight rivals. Byrama (GB) is among the challengers and, hey!, look at the pedigree profile from Tribe on Byrama! The Hirsch will head to post at 8:45 eastern, 5:45 for us out here on the West Coast.

Not to be forgotten is tonight's Grade 2 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park in, well, West Virginia. A good field of nine will load into the gate, let by a couple of holdovers from this spring's Triple Crown races. Arkansas Derby winner Overanalyze is your 7/5 morning line favorite while Illinois Derby winner Departing (7/2) looks to bounce back from a disappointing Preakness run back in mid-May.

Post time for the West Virginia Derby is 5:45 p.m. Eastern which is the... exact.... same.... time... as the Whitney. Guys? Really? An hour earlier or an hour later would probably work just a tad better.

Scratches and Changes via Equibase

Saratoga - Scratches / Changes
Del Mar - Scratches / Changes
Mountaineer - Scratches / Changes