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Nice soft lighting, nicely composed, cute kid, and a memorable moment.  Well done!

Very convincing and well done.

I appreciate your feedback.

I really didn't have much of a choice than to shoot at 1/320 without going even higher than ISO 1600 I used.  I was already as wide open as I could be at f4.0  The skies darkened just before the race and I didn't really have any other options.  I had IS turned on and I hoped that it would help compensate for the slower shutter speed. I wasn't aware that IS should not be used on a monopod with the movement coming towards the camera.  Why is that? Is that generally accepted?  I  did have it turned on. I post-processed with Photoshop and Neat Image to compensate for the grain from ISO 1600, among other things.  If I had more light, I could have used a faster shutter speed - which I would have preferred.

As far as contrast goes, what you see is what I like in my images - more shadow and highlight detail that I have adjusted in PS. You are very observant and correct that I used the shadows/highlight function in PS.  The images that roll out of the camera tend to have less shadow/highlight detail than I prefer. 

That being said, I fairly satisfied with result, considering what was under my control.  If you have any more suggestions about what I could've done differently, I'd love to hear them.  Thanks for your comments.

For those of you who are interested, I have now entered the data for this image.

The winner, Animal Kingdom, is second from the left (with a red hat).

The pack as they go to the first turn in the 136th Kentucky Derby.

Calvin Borel winning the 136th Kentucky Derby.

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The problem that I see with this image is that there is a huge dynamic range that blows out the exteme highlights and renders little shadow detail. To get both shadow and hightlight detail probably requires HDR. Brady's suggestion improves the lighting but also introduces noise into the shadow detail. Sometimes working with the RAW image to tone down the highlights and bring up the shadows provides an acceptable result without going the HDR route. I'm sure that having to scan the image also contributed to the dynamic range problem. Just another of many reasons to avoid film, IMO. I shot film for 20+ years and would never go back.

Great title. Love the perspective and composition. Nicely done!

A very pleasing silhouette composition and great colors and lighting. Well done!

Lovely balanced composition and subtle lighting. If this were mine, I'd probably try a bit more contrast in the sky. This is a very nice image!

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Great perspective, lots of detail, and very well rendered. Nice work!

I was excited to meet Wilson Tsoi in person on our trip to Seattle. I have admired and learned from Wilson's work here on Photo.net for the past five years. We found Wilson to be very friendly and gracious in our actual meeting. I have also had in person meetings with other Photo.net members. Photo.net has been a tremendous resource, in several ways, for developing my photographic skills. Photo is courtesy of Michele Petry and my editing with Portrait Professional 9 and CS4.

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Very nice composition. Would like the subject flag to be in sharper focus but the concept is very clear and nicely done.