The longshot of longshots! Giacomo and his whopping 50/1 , $102.70 return for win wagers is still the stuff of legends.
One of my favorite handicappers in the world, Ron Correll over at Trackside View, predicted publicly that this horse would win in 2005, and he did not disappoint. Simply amazing. I don’t think you ever forget when a horse wins for you at 50/1. I had the chance to interview Ron over email about a year ago. When I inquired off -the-record as to how he selected Giacomo, he replied something to the effect that the race had a ton of speed and he was just looking for a closer. Well done!
Over the years I’ve run into a bunch of folks who attest to cashing winning scores on Giacomo. I always wonder how many of them were actually touting the horse prior to the race, and how many just put a late few dollars through the window on a “chance” play? Either way, they all wound up doing better than me in ’05. I didn’t see Giacomo coming from a mile away. 
I wonder how many people had him to win that year? The bad thing is if a horse like that wins, you know you will no triple crown winner. You need a great horse to be able to win all three legs. The only three horses that have a loooooooog chance of winning all three is Dunkirk, Revenge, and Pioneer. I doubt anyone else can pull it off that is running Saturday.
Comparing final fractions from Giacomo and Afleet Alex from their final Derby preps I can see that the latter is clearly superior. Andy Beyer exercised his reverse spin guy skills in support of Jeremy Rose, but figure makers know that he royally screwed up the ride and Rose himself admitted as such after winning the Belmont.
Of course, if 20 media punters pick an entrant and one wins at a big price, with 100-percent probability, one of them has to wind up looking like a genius. I did use Giacomo and Wilco under Afleet Alex in the exacta but in a 20 horse field strange things can happen.