While the focus at this time of the year understandably is on 3-year-olds with designs on the Kentucky Derby, it was a breathtaking victory at Santa Anita Park last Saturday by a 3-year-old filly headed to the Kentucky Oaks that had many racing enthusiasts buzzing. Irish War Cry, Irap and Gormley now head to the […]
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Having difficulty finding a horse to wager on in this year’s Kentucky Derby? Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. With just a few weeks to go until they sing “My Old Kentucky Home,” many of us still search for a Derby horse. With magnifying glasses. This season, no one stands out in this crowd. They’re […]
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Saturday, from coast-to-coast, they’re going to run a trio of venerable stakes races—the 80th Santa Anita Derby, the 93rd Wood Memorial and 93rd Blue Grass. Unfortunately, when billed as mere Triple Crown preps these gems suffer unfairly. Do yourself a favor and don’t think of them as opening acts. Warm ups. Sideline stretches. They are […]
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Following last Saturday’s victories by Always Dreaming in the Grade I Xpressbet.com Florida Derby and by Girvin in the Grade II Louisiana Derby, I now can count up the strikes for each colt. It is not until a horse has made his or her final start before the Kentucky Derby that one can determine a […]
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The original assignment in this space for this week was for yours truly to analyze a pair of upcoming 3-year-old races: Florida and Louisiana Derbies. After all, the first Saturday in May is just around the corner and this season’s Kentucky Derby picture still is as blurry as an underwater eye chart. That’s mostly because […]
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It was a performance for the ages by a horse for the ages. Dead last early after a tardy start that then was exacerbated by being bumped a number of times in the opening strides like a piñata while being squeezed back, Arrogate amazingly still won last Saturday’s Group I Dubai World Cup. Not only […]
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Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. Apollo. The 1882 Kentucky Derby winner was mentioned above 10 times. You can bet he is going to be mentioned many more times than that from now through May 6, the date of this year’s Kentucky Derby. That’s because Malagacy, who did not race as a […]
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Old fashioned press clippings, newfangled Internet blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook posts all claim he’s best in the world. Anointed king of the turf on the third rock from the sun. Better even than ice cream. All that and a bag of chips. Sometimes, such lofty plaudits, even if accurate, spoil athletes. An inflated opinion […]
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Hall of Fame jockey Gary Lynn Stevens won a race last Saturday at Santa Anita. Big deal. He’d won 5,083 before that. In a career that began in 1979, Stevens has won some of the world’s biggest races—Kentucky Derby (3), Preakness (3), Belmont (3), Dubai World Cup (1), Breeders Cup (11), Santa Anita Derby (9) […]
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Don’t worry if the following sentence does not make any sense to you: Lately trail Derby Kentucky the on bump after bump encountered have ranks old-year-3 the in leaders the of many. If the above sentence did have you baffled, don’t worry. What you need to do is to read it by starting with the […]
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It’s time for a few of the best sophs in the West to show us what they’ve got in Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. In the first 2017 3-year-old conflict of import, John Shirreff’s Gormley and Bob Baffert’s American Anthem traded haymakers through the Arcadia lane in the Sham Stakes Jan. 7. That […]
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Officially, Saturday’s major 3-year-old clash is labeled the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth. It’s a Grade 1 test, worth $400,000 and 85 total points toward inclusion in the Kentucky Derby starting gate. Xpressbet proudly shares the Saturday spotlight with host Gulfstream Park for the 71st renewal. At one mile and one-sixteenth, the race traditionally offers developing […]
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Sometimes horseplayers will come across what turns out to be a “productive” or “key” race. Generally speaking, it’s a race that produces multiple next-out winners. However, the betting value of a “productive” or “key” race has diminished in recent years as a result of so many horseplayers becoming aware of these races. The flip side […]
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Those who went ‘gaga’ over the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show probably weren’t counting on the game’s conclusion outperforming the ‘Lady’ of the same surname. Amazingly, it did! Seems a bit foolish to hope that the second half of the 2017 Triple Crown season might rival such a finish, but we can hope. The unofficial […]
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Nyquist last year became the eighth undefeated Kentucky Derby winner. Of the 142 Kentucky Derby winners, these are the eight who emerged from the Run for the Roses with an undefeated record: 1915 Regret 1922 Morvich 1969 Majestic Prince 1977 Seattle Slew 2004 Smarty Jones 2006 Barbaro 2008 Big Brown 2016 Nyquist Will there be […]
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