Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths. Sham ran his heart out but had to settle for second. Justify won the 2018 Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths. Good Magic ran his heart out but had to settle for second. Two weeks after Secretariat’s Kentucky Derby victory, he won the Preakness Stakes. […]
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We correctly tabbed the Derby result in this space, touting winner Justify as The One to Beat and second and third-place finishers, respectively, Good Magic and Audible as ‘Ones That Can Do It.’ However, we didn’t do quite as well with our suggested wagering strategies. We suggested keying Justify in the first, second and third […]
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Earlier this week I received an inquisitive e-mail from a friend containing a link to a Sports Illustrated article by Tim Layden posted at MSN.com: Justify Elicits Comparisons to American Pharoah in First Step of Following Same Historic Path (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/justify-elicits-comparisons-to-american-pharoah-in-first-step-of-following-same-historic-path/ar-AAwO7ri?li=BBnba9I). The question my friend asked is, “So, what do you think?” As I typed a […]
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When American Pharoah in 2015 swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, he ended a 37-year streak in which there had been no Triple Crown winner. He became the first horse to achieve the coveted feat since Affirmed in 1978. But those 37 years were peanuts compared to the streak that came to […]
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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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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 […]
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It’s never too early to talk Triple Crown. Here’s our preseason top-25 rankings plus 10 additional prospects that are “under consideration.” The rankings are based on performance, pedigree, running style, connections, and projections. Let’s see how many can make an impact in next spring’s American classics. Jeff Siegel’s Preseason 2018 Triple Crown Top-25 Rankings […]
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Santa Anita Park is called the Great Race Place. And one of the greatest performances by a first-time starter ever seen there occurred in the eighth race on March 19, 2011, when Maclean’s Music was so fast that he seemed to make the palm trees sway. Yes, that’s the same Maclean’s Music whose son Cloud […]
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The third and final leg of the 2017 Triple Crown is on the horizon next Saturday, June 10 at Belmont Park and no Triple Crown will be on the line. That’s OK with this guy. Racing’s most coveted title is one of the few professional sports honors not presented annually. It’s bestowed purely on a […]
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I think it’s fair to say most racing fans are always dreaming to see a Triple Crown sweep. It is a dream that has come true only 12 times, most recently in 2015 with American Pharoah. But any chance for a 2017 Triple Crown sweep came to an end last Saturday in the 142nd running […]
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