For his win in last Saturday’s $180,000 Winter Challenge at Los Alamitos, fan favorite California Chrome earned $50,000. The dominant victory in what is scheduled to be the penultimate start of his marvelous career boosted his total bankroll to $14,502,652. According to Equibase, these are the 10 leading money-winning Thoroughbreds to have made at least […]
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A certain Hall of Fame trainer is dominating three of this nation’s Grade I races to such an extent that it is getting to be downright ridiculous. The trainer is Bob Baffert. The three races are the Haskell Invitational (for 3-year-olds), Del Mar Futurity (for 2-year-olds) and Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity (also for 2-year-olds). Although […]
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The prestigious Eclipse Awards were instituted in 1971 to honor the crème de la crème of Thoroughbred racing. These awards are named after the phenomenal racehorse Eclipse, who was undefeated in 18 lifetime starts prior to becoming a great sire in the 1700s. By my count, a total of 348 different Thoroughbreds have won an […]
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Tepin continued her winning ways when she prevailed by a half-length as a heavy favorite in last Saturday’s Grade I Woodbine Mile. It was her eighth straight victory overall. Not only that, it was her seventh consecutive win in a graded stakes race on the grass in North America. No other female Thoroughbred has achieved […]
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A year ago I made the point in this column that in light of Seattle Slew’s marvelous record at New York tracks, one would think one of those tracks would have a graded stakes race named in his honor. Yes, there is the ungraded Seattle Slew Handicap at Emerald Downs in the Pacific Northwest. But […]
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Russell Baze took the racing world by surprise last week when he announced his career as a jockey was over. But the low-key fashion in which the Hall of Fame rider made his retirement known was pretty much in keeping with the way he has conducted himself throughout his remarkable career. “He’s so humble,” Ray […]
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Creator eked out a narrow win over Destin in last Saturday’s 148th running of the Belmont Stakes. But the performance of the day, of the week, of the month and of the year so far was the spectacular victory by Frosted in the 123rd edition of the Metropolitan Handicap. “That race yesterday was just a […]
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If you watched the San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita back on Feb. 15, it turned out that you got a preview of the Kentucky Derby exacta. Nyquist remained undefeated when he won the San Vicente by 1 1/2 lengths, with Exaggerator finishing second. In this column last week, I wrote: “One scenario I think […]
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The Beyer Speed Figures going into this year’s Kentucky Derby are relatively low. That is one thing we do know. There were 13 races run in the U.S. this year in which the winner earned 50 or 100 points toward the Kentucky Derby. In 11 of the 13 races, the winner was assigned a lower […]
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The races in which horses can earn points for the 2016 Kentucky Derby are over. It all began when Cocked and Loaded won the Iroquois at Churchill Downs to earn 10 points last year on Sept. 12. The Iroquois was the first of the 34 races offering points to “get into the starting field” for […]
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The way I currently see it, there is a good chance the winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby has a 91007 zip code. On my Kentucky Derby Top 10 this week, No. 1 Nyquist, No. 2 Exaggerator and No. 3 Mor Spirit are all based in California at Santa Anita Park, zip code 91007. No. […]
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