The most intriguing race on Saturday at Santa Anita Park is the Angels Flight Stakes. It is a wide-open ten horse field filled with speed that looks ripe with great betting opportunities. I will key a horse from off the pace to leverage value. Below is my wagering strategy for the Angels Flight Stakes. Key […]
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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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Below is the early Pick 5 ticket for April 14th, 2018 at Santa Anita Park. As always the ticket is $20 or less. Race 1 Majestic Eagle (#8, 9-5) will be tough to beat at a short price following his recent second to Fibonacci, who returned to win in impressive fashion. Majestic Eagle shortens up to 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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Below is the late Pick 5 ticket for Santa Anita Derby Day, April 7th, 2018 at Santa Anita Park. As always the ticket is $20 or less. Race 8 Sigur Ros (#8, 6-1) finally catches a field with no speed after being used up in pace duels in his last two starts. He was 6 wide every […]
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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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Below is the early Pick 5 ticket for March 24th, 2018 at Santa Anita Park. As always the ticket is $20 or less and the sequence is extra intriguing with a carryover coming in. Race 1 Eagle Screams (#2, 5-1) looks poised for victory as he returns to the turf first off the claim for Steve […]
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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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