Saturday at Santa Anita, 3-year-old Omaha Beach won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship in thrilling fashion, closing along the inside under Hall-of-Fame jockey Mike Smith to nail speedy and heavily-favored Shancelot on the money in 1:08 3/5. The victory was made even more exciting because Omaha Beach had been the Kentucky Derby morning […]
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The distance from the last turn to the finish on the main track at Santa Anita measures 990 feet. It’s the standard length of the stretch run in terms of a typical one-mile oval. It turned out that Omaha Beach and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith needed every bit of that 990 feet of […]
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A mere 30 days separate this writing and one of racing’s most popular afternoons– Breeders’ Cup Championship Saturday at Santa Anita. It’s a bit frightening to realize that this will be the BC’s 36th renewal. Present at Hollywood Park on a sunny Saturday afternoon when 7 races worth a total of $10 million played out […]
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The NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll each week gives everyone an indication as to where the race for Horse of the Years stands if Eclipse Award votes were cast that particular week instead of at the end of the year. The Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 1-2 no doubt will, as usual, […]
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With the Breeders’ Cup returning to Santa Anita Park this year on Nov. 1-2, it’s perfectly understandable if some folks might think back to a Breeders’ Cup performance at that Southern California track in 2009. It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed since Zenyatta’s thriller of a victory in the BC Classic at […]
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Now that the 2019 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 1-2 is on the horizon, I have formulated my own early odds for what currently is shaping up to be a pretty wide-open Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Grade I event, which has a purse of $6 million, will be contested at 1 1/4 […]
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Can Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in 2019 extend his streak to five consecutive 3-year-old male champions? I posed that question back in January. Daily Racing Form first conducted voting for champions in 1937. The Eclipse Awards were born in 1971. Going back to 1937, Baffert is the only person who has trained four […]
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Now that it is July, it’s time for my list of the Top 10 performances by a Thoroughbred in the United States during the first half of 2019. A Thoroughbred’s performance can make this list for a variety of reasons, such as: –A win by a big margin while showing brilliance. –Recording a fast final […]
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King for a Day ruled the day when he managed to topple overwhelming 1-20 favorite Maximum Security in last Sunday’s 1 1/16-mile Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. When I was a guest with Joe Withee and Rob Rao last Sunday morning on the Win Place Show, a radio program heard on Seattle’s KJR-AM, I issued […]
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City of Light’s dominating Pegasus World Cup Invitational score Saturday puts him alongside previous race winners in what ultimately could become an equine pantheon. As the third winner of the fledgling event ‘Light joins previous Pegasus champs Arrogate and Gun Runner, both considered the best active dirt horses in the world when they won the […]
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Trainer Bob Baffert has done something in the sport of Thoroughbred racing that has not received anywhere close to the attention it deserves. In fact, it has not received much attention at all. If something similar had happened in the NFL, NBA or MLB, it would be a very big deal. But in horse racing, […]
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Below is how I am planning to fill out my official Eclipse Award ballot for 2018, with the caveat that my decisions will not become absolutely final until the entire year is over. That is why I will not be submitting my ballot until after racing this Monday (Dec. 31) is completed. TWO-YEAR-OLD MALE: […]
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In less than a month, many in the racing industry will congregate at Gulfstream Park in balmy South Florida for the third running of the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational. That rich race and a new $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational will be decided on the track and turf course, respectively. The […]
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In the debate surrounding whether Accelerate or Justify should be voted a coveted gold statue as Thoroughbred racing’s 2018 Horse of the Year, count this writer squarely in Justify’s camp. He’s just the best. And here’s why… Accelerate had an outstanding season February until November. He raced 7 times, once each month, except for […]
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There is no thing as a sure thing, a reality that was reaffirmed when Audible finished second as a 1-10 favorite to 25-1 Sir Anthony in last Saturday’s Harlan’s Holiday Stakes. The Grade III Harlan’s Holiday was contested on Gulfstream Park’s sloppy main track. Audible went into the 1 1/16-mile race having won five […]
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