Derby Remix: Going retro on the Derby road

Without Road to the Kentucky Derby races every week, the Derby Remix is going retro. We're looking back at horses who have run in the Derby in the last few decades.

What better place to start than with my favorite Derby runner and that paean to carefree speed, "Open Road Song" by Eve 6?

Tonight I feel ambitious, and so does my foot

As it sinks on the pedal

I press it to the floor

In six starts before the 2013 Kentucky Derby (G1), Palace Malice had proven his tactical speed but never led a race at the first call.

Two of his three prep races were close calls. He finished third by a half-length in the Risen Star (G2) and came in second by a neck in the Blue Grass (G1). He had enough points to get into the Derby starting gate, but he had yet to win a stakes race. He had to put the final pieces in place.

Palace Malice trained in blinkers ahead of the Derby, but what a horse does in the morning never guarantees what they'll do in the afternoon.

The blinkers put Palace Malice into his own little world on the first Saturday in May. They gave the Churchill slop the look of the open road, beckoning him to show all his speed.

But the Derby can't be the open road forever. A car may be able to cruise for carefree hours, but a horse setting one-turn fractions at a mile and a quarter cannot remain alone forever.

I search for comfort and I find it

Where I've found it many times before

Times before can be forgotten

Palace Malice's connections could still find comfort in the performance. It was a testament to his class and stamina that he still finished 12th, ahead of all his closest pursuers from the first half-mile.

And, five weeks later in the Belmont (G1), everyone could put his blinkered enthusiasm out of their minds. Without the headgear, he settled better and cruised when it mattered most — first across the wire.