I spent the morning at the batting cage with my son, Jared, because I only had to ride the sixth race today. I'd just gotten back to the house here in Louisville and when I walked in, TVG was already talking about post one and how "Lucky drew post one!" and this and that. And then my agent sent me a text a couple minutes after that. They were talking about how the two favorites drew inside and outside, so they said "They both drew bad," but I don't know, it's tough down in the one hole, but I don't think it's necessarily a BAD draw.

The reason the one hole is viewed as a bad thing in the Kentucky Derby is because you have 20 horses trying to get over really fast, and that's where the problems come in with having a horse down on the inside. Everybody kind of feeds down in there, but you just have to work a trip out. To be honest with you, I'd rather have the one hole than the 20 -- that would be like when I had the 13 hole in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Unless you have a lot of speed when you're breaking from that position, you're not going to get over; you're always going to find something mid-pack that's going to hold you out because horses won't be able to get over to the inside. So I think I'm better off with post one, kind of.

Of course I would have rather drawn like we drew last year. Last year we ended up with post 15 which was OK; it was a little further out than we wanted but we had to take it because of Pioneerof the Nile's running style. They still did the selection process back then, and [trainer] Bob [Baffert] tried to place him around some of the horses we thought he'd run well with and keep him away from some others we wanted to avoid. This year it was a blind draw like we draw all of our races, so we didn't have a hand in it at all.

We'll just have to see how the race develops and go from there. When I get a chance to look at the field and see exactly what's around me I'll be able to tell how it should play out a little bit more, where I'll be able to get him protected, where hopefully he won't get shuffled back so far, where maybe I need to squeeze a little more or a little less, that kind of thing.

If a horse is willing to cooperate with what I'm asking him or her to do, the one hole doesn't make me terribly concerned. The objective is not to get shuffled back, because once you start getting shuffled back it's just going to continue. If that happens, you have no forward momentum, and every time you take a step back somebody takes a step in your path. So the key will be just trying to find a spot, and hopefully there's some gap in between me and some speed horses toward the outside so I can outrun a couple of them immediately to my outside and find a spot for him under the wire going into the first turn; that way, once we get into the first turn, we'll have a good spot.

I'll have to work out some kind of trip. I might have to use him, I might not. It'll just be according to what's exactly around me. It's a matter of trying to weave your way, trying to make sure you have more pace than who is next to you … it's one of those things where you need to know how to outrun some of the horses to your outside to avoid some of the shuffling and predicaments.

Someone asked me the other day how Lookin at Lucky has matured, since I've been on him in all of his starts. He's always been mature, always done everything right, but I think it's been more of a learning process for all of us who are involved with him. The reason I asked for the blinkers is because I wasn't the most confident sitting on him when he started pulling up and stuff like that, but if you watched his races when he was actually pulling up, he had those other horses measured. I was just uncomfortable with the way he had them measured because when I asked him to do something, he wasn't responsive to me telling him to go faster when there wasn't a target out there. And actually when I worked him the first time after they put the blinkers on, it seemed like they immediately fixed his attention to where his focus level improved. You can see it in his works here, when he goes by his competition he's doing it with ease, doing what he's supposed to be doing. So hopefully when I tell him go, he'll go ahead and do what he's supposed to. That's probably that maturing process, where he's developed.

He's always had a lot of talent and he's always been able to do it on talent, but it's like being in school, trying to get him used to the idea of getting focused on exactly what he's supposed to be doing and his goal for the day when he's out there. That's what we're trying to get him to achieve, and hopefully now that he's had the blinkers on, when I tell him to go he'll go ahead and go.

There's one thing the riders always do on Derby week, and I wanted to mention it because I think it's important no matter who you are: jockey, trainer, owner, fan. At this time of year, the room will be filled with items to be signed for charity, hats, jackets and other stuff like that. It takes two seconds; it's not a big deal for us to sign some stuff. We enjoy the charities just being here and wanting to be a part of things and if all it takes to show support is for us to sign a couple of things, we're more than happy to do so. It's part of giving back and it's something everyone should do, not only at this time of the year, but all the time. So I hope no matter what you're doing during Derby week, you'll pick an industry charity of some kind to support. That's an important part of my life, and an important part of our game.