First, allow me to establish credibility on the topic of horses with a quick anecdote, and then if you’re still interested, you can digest my thoughts on today’s Kentucky Derby.

Several years ago, my cousin Frank and I visited our Uncle Bud, a retired veterinarian who had owned trotter horses through the years. He’s on the quiet side, so I thought I would talk horses to fill the first conversation gap.

“So when you own the stud horse,” I started, about to put my hoof in my mouth, “do you get the first pick of the litter?”

My cousin Frank never had been so embarrassed to be related to somebody.

“You dope!” he railed, which come to think of it, is how he starts most conversations with me. “There’s no litter. Do you know how much they weigh when they’re born? What, do you think they’re like little puppies?”

Still want to hear my pick for the Kentucky Derby? No? Didn’t think so, which was why I found somebody who knows what of he whinnies, er, speaks. Dr. Bill Reed, a cardiac surgeon at KU Medical Center and a horse breeder whose Stonecrest Farm is in Kansas City, recently celebrated the birth of five more Kentucky bred-and-born foals, which I’m told weigh a great deal more than puppies. Reed’s best racehorse, Perfect Drift, finished third in the 2002 Kentucky Derby. (Kentucky bred-and-born horses are eligible for 25 percent supplements to purses, which is why Reed’s horses enter the world in the blue-grass state).

Reed didn’t make the trip to Churchill Downs in Louisville for today’s race, but Perfect Drift is on display at the Derby Museum, serving as this year’s resident thoroughbred “for people to see what a racehorse really looks like,” Reed said. “It’s a great honor.” A gelding, Perfect Drift again will be in the museum’s paddock turnout area for the fall meet and then will return home to Kansas City to enjoy retirement, sans shuffleboard.

Reed doesn’t have a horse in today’s Derby, so his picks for the 1-1/4-mile race can be trusted.

Reed likes I Want Revenge, a 3-1 favorite racing out of the 13 post position in the 20-horse race, to win. Why?

“He had a really troubled trip in the Wood Memorial,” Reed said. “He was last in the first turn and made up all kinds of ground on the back side and won by a couple of lengths, in spite of a lot of trouble. And he won another big-time race on dirt.”

OK, so it’s I Want Revenge to win.

“The other horse I favor is Dunkirk,” Reed said of the No. 15 entry with 4-1 odds. “Very well-bred, but doesn’t have much experience. (Sired) by Unbridled Song, a great stallion.”

That’s a 13-15 exacta. Reed did not pick famous trainer Bob Baffert’s Pioneerof the Nile, 4-1 from the No. 16 post.

“Nice horse, but has done all of his stuff on synthetic tracks and that may or may not be translatable to dirt,” he said.

Just how stressful is it for an owner to watch his horse race?

“It’s like watching one of your kids on a fastbreak with a tie score and he misses a layup and the game’s over,” Reed said. “That gives you the feeling, doesn’t it?”

This surgeon cuts with words too.