At the beginning of November, Jackie’s Warrior was the favorite to win the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Now, at the beginning of March, the one-time Derby favorite is off the Derby trail. The Maclean’s Music colt will be at Churchill Downs on May 1 – Derby Day — but he’ll run […]
With the Breeders’ Cup providing the year’s finishing touch for the first time since 2017, Del Mar announced a 2021 summer stakes schedule featuring a 30% purse increase over 2020. Some of the purse boost comes from two stakes returning from a 2020 hiatus – the Grade 3 Cougar II […]
Tiger Roll’s date with history was canceled this week, when owners for the two-time Grand National champion pulled the 11-year-old out of this year’s April 10 event at Aintree. Gigginstown House Stud, which owns Tiger Roll, announced the horse won’t get his chance for a three-peat in the world’s most […]
While the rest of the front-page Kentucky Derby futures favorites spent the winter winning races from California to Florida – and all points in between — Highly Motivated spent his winter hanging out in New York. This was Highly Motivated’s winter: working out here and there, watching stablemate Risk Taking […]
Essential Quality turned his Southwest Stakes victory on Saturday into 7/2 favored status for the Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) Pool 4. The KDFW’s Pool 4 runs concurrently with the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager’s sole pool. Clariere opens as the 5/1 favorite for that pool. The KDFW opens Friday at […]
This weekend’s stakes lineup features one of the most iconic races in American horse racing, the Santa Anita Handicap. But even that event, technically Santa Anita Park’s Saturday headliner, may get overshadowed on its own card by a Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep, the San Felipe Stakes. Featuring two of […]
In a rare episode of When Jockeys Fight, Gulfstream Park stewards fined leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. $1,000 and put him and brawling partner Paco Lopez on probation after the two riders fought following Friday’s fourth race at Gulfstream. The Daily Racing Form first broke the story. According to the […]
As the calendar turns to March – a mere two months out from the Kentucky Derby – Circa Sports and William Hill Nevada pared 53 horses from their Derby futures boards. There are 150 horses remaining. The value on many of the favorites? The books sliced that away long ago. […]
Essential Quality and Greatest Honour came out of their weekend Kentucky Derby prep victories none the worse for their victorious efforts. And, their respective trainers have already plotted their next stops on the Derby trail. Essential Quality, who splashed through the Oaklawn Park slop for a 4 ¼-length victory over […]
Again, when you’re handicapping a Monomoy Girl race, like Sunday’s Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park, it’s best to put the pen down. Instead, pick up your attention and simply watch. Betting on Monomoy Girl, especially in a race like this, lacks value. For horse racing fans, however, it […]
Once you get past the obvious, that Greatest Honour is clearly the favorite to add the Fountain of Youth to his Gulfstream Park Kentucky Derby prep resume, this race opens up a wealth of other storylines. Can Fire At Will handle dirt as well as he handled turf? Is Prime […]
From a betting standpoint, Saturday’s Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park lacks value. Do you want 3/2 Essential Quality or 8/5 Jackie’s Warrior? There are five other horses in the field, but this isn’t a rhetorical question. From a watching standpoint, the 1 1/16-mile Southwest lacks nothing. How can […]
This is the essential lure of MyRacehorse Stables for horse racing fans. Starting early next month, you can own a piece of Monomoy Girl for the price of a tank of gas or a nice bottle of wine. MyRacehorse Stable paid $300,000 to Spendthrift Farm for 51% of the racing […]
If Vequist was a human being, she’d be the daughter of an established, well-to-do family. She’d be a debutante before winding up at one of those Eastern colleges at which the scions of America’s top families often find themselves. Instead, Vequist – who makes her 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade […]
This weekend’s stakes card gives us another shot at seeing the 2021 debuts of Essential Quality, Jackie’s Warrior, and Monomoy Girl. After two weather postponements over the past two weekends, Oaklawn Park finally gets a thumbs-up from Mother Nature. That means the Arkansas track finally gets to turn loose its […]
Three of Kentucky’s most powerful breeding farms filed suit in US District Court on Tuesday, seeking to end The Jockey Club’s stallion cap rule that limits stallions born in 2020 or later to 140 mares a year. The plaintiffs, Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud, and Three Chimneys Farm, also listed two […]
Churchill Downs Incorporated announced Tuesday that Arlington Park, one of North America’s most iconic race tracks, and the home of the Arlington Million, is up for sale. Through commercial real estate company CBRE Group, CDI opened the market for the 326-acre Arlington Heights, Ill., property, located in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. […]
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 120 Tuesday, legalizing historical horse racing machines and protecting the economic impact they have on the state’s signature equine industry. For now, that ends the legal saga on whether the slot-like machines meet the definition of pari-mutuel wagering. Introduced in January by State […]
The day after Charlatan finished a game, but beaten, second to England’s Mishriff in the $20 million Saudi Cup, his trainer Bob Baffert gushed about what transpired on the other end of the world. “He ran a big race,†Baffert told Santa Anita Park’s Ed Golden on Sunday morning. “He […]
When it comes to Kentucky Derby prospects, Jon White makes things simpler than they really are. To the author of Santa Anita Park’s morning line and a regular television presence on XBTV, breaking down Derby prospects in February begins with three elements. “You’re looking for horses who give the indication […]
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