By most estimations this is a Kentucky Derby field rich in talent where at least four different horses are capable of winning without raising an eyebrow. To make matters more difficult there are at least two runners in the field—Justify and Mendelssohn–that have exhibited sufficient talent to suggest they may be very special. However, in […]
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Quip and Gronkowski are out. Combatant and Instilled Regard are in. It was announced Monday that Quip, winner of the Grade II Tampa Bay Derby and runner-up in the Grade I Arkansas Derby, will not run in the Grade I Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 5. Quip races for WinStar Farm and China […]
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This season’s Kentucky Derby picture is as challenging to complete as a jigsaw puzzle missing a handful of pieces. Accurately predicting the outcome of the nation’s most famous horserace never is easy but, this season, the task seems nearly impossible. This first Saturday in May, horseplayers should anticipate confusion, frustration and a heck of a […]
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Whether or not Justify wins the Kentucky Derby to become the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to do so without having raced as a 2-year-old, what he already has accomplished is extraordinary. In the span of just 48 days, Justify went from being an unraced maiden to a Grade I winner in last Saturday’s […]
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Saturday, Justify, the most exciting sophomore racehorse in North America, grabbed the 2018 Santa Anita Derby by the throat out of the gate and didn’t let go for 1:49.72. Simultaneously, he intensified his grip on favoritism in the Kentucky Derby. Twice he repelled bids from Bolt d’Oro, a multiple Grade 1 winner and runner-up for […]
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With two Saturdays and just five remaining races on the Road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, there’s not much ‘prep’ time left for the nation’s elite 3-year-olds, or horseplayers. I suppose, at this point, we ought to know the major players. However, the Kentucky Derby offers more than just win, place and […]
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Talk about running up the score. Racing on the dirt for the first time, Mendelssohn streaked home in last Saturday’s Group I UAE Derby in Dubai. He kept widening…and widening…and widening. When he reached the finish, no one else was in the same zip code. He won by such a large margin that there is […]
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At Churchill Downs September 16, 2017, the official Road to the 2018 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve began with the Iroquois Stakes—first of 34 official qualifying events. May 5, 2018, following the 144th Run for the Roses, that path dead-ends at the identical finish line. So far, two familiar 2017 leftovers–Bolt d’Oro and McKinzie–continue […]
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Derby Strikes season 2018 has arrived. Back in 1999, I developed my Derby Strikes System. The system consists of nine key factors. When a horse does not qualify in one of the nine categories, the horse gets a strike. The nine key factors are explained at the end of this column. Various “rules” for the […]
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Is this the year it finally happens? Will this be the year in which the Kentucky Derby winner is someone who did not race as a 2-year-old? We already saw one of the longest streaks in all of sports come to an end last Friday when UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) crushed Virginia […]
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The recent passing of Thunder Gulch sent me scurrying to the bookshelf for a copy of Champions: The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of the 20th Century’s Greatest Thoroughbreds, by editors and writers at Daily Racing Form. The book is a treasure trove of information and includes complete past performance lines of title winners. As […]
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Saturday at Santa Anita going a mile and one-sixteenth, two of the nation’s top-ranked 3-year-olds met in the San Felipe Stakes. Bolt d’Oro, runner-up in 2017 voting for top 2-year-old honors, and McKinzie, an unbeaten Grade 1 winner, put on a show worth of the price of admission. Eyeballing as if one owed the other […]
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Last Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park turned out to be a real humdinger. McKinzie, favored at even money in the Grade II affair, and Bolt d’Oro, sent off at 6-5, put on quite a show. They staged a furious battle from the quarter pole all the way to a photo finish. The […]
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Live In-Race wagering is a ‘thing’ somewhere on this gambling planet. Thankfully, it’s not a proposition offered at Gulfstream Park. Good. Because if Fountain of Youth attendees had been able to wager midway through last Saturday’s featured race they would have lost their case Joe’s Stone Crab money on favorite Good Magic. The Breeders’ Cup […]
Read moreThis Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park should be a lot of fun to watch. The Grade II affair features an early season clash between McKinzie, who has been No. 1 on my Kentucky Derby Top 10 all year up to this point, and Bolt d’Oro, who currently is No. 2 on my […]
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