By Dick Downey

Algorithms was impressive winning the Grade III Holy Bull yesterday, but what odds would you take right now that he'll win the Kentucky Derby in over 90 days?

Up-to-date odds are not available online at this posting from traditional -- and legal -- venues like Wynn Las Vegas or Lucky's, but online betting venue sportsbook.com has Algorithms at 6-1 this morning.

But get this. You can bet on horses to win the Derby by alphabet letter at this website.

An alert reader has pointed this out -- you can get a leg up on "A" right now. You can bet that any horse whose name starts with "A" will win the Derby, and that proposition is 10-1, while you only get 6-1 if you only bet on Algorithms. Crazy, huh?

Just pecking around, Reveron, the Gulfstream Park Derby winner, is 75-1; and Junebugred, winner of the Smarty Jones, is 100-1. "R" is 15-1 and "J" is 30-1. Casual Trick, up the track in the Holy Bull after running second in the Gulfstream Park Derby, is 50-1. "C" is 10-1.

There are 26 letters in the alphabet, right? We wondered which letter shows the lowest odds. It's "S" at 4-1. A lot of horses start with the letter "S" -- there are 45 such horses listed in the Derby future wager at sportsbook.com. Never mind that you've never heard of a whole lot of them.

Next at 5-1 are "H", "L" and "U."  As in Hansen, Liaison and Union Rags. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Indivdually, Hansen is 8-1, even after his loss yesterday. Liaison is 12-1. And Union Rags is 8-1.

I don't know about all this. Maybe I'll wait around and see how "R" does in the Bob Lewis.