Brad Cox and Essential Quality are simultaneously chasing Travers Stakes history and running from it at the same time. This counterintuitive feat illustrates Cox’s training prowess, Essential Quality’s running prowess, and the Travers’ recent prowess as a destroyer of favorites. Cox, who trains the prohibitive 4/5 favorite for Saturday’s headline […]
Say this for the 2021 Personal Ensign; Letruska may be the clubhouse leader as Champion Older Filly of the Year, but her rivals for that title don’t scare easily. That explains why the Grade 1 Personal Ensign – one of Saratoga’s six Grade 1s on Saturday — features a deep, […]
The H. Allen Jerkens Memorial draws its name from the legendary New York trainer who earned a well-deserved reputation for springing massive upsets. Among Jerkens’ victims were the distinguished likes of Kelso, Buckpasser, Cougar II, and Forego. Then, there was Secretariat. Two Jerkens also-rans defeated the 20th century’s greatest Thoroughbred: […]
Art Collector is the 5/2 morning-line favorite for Friday’s Grade 2 Charles Town Classic at Hollywood Casino at Charles Races. And yes, it’s strange to read one of 2020’s top 3-year-olds is running in West Virginia and not in Saratoga this weekend. Art Collector’s path to the starting gate for […]
You’ve got an in-form Gamine running a seven-furlong sprint on an Eastern track with a Breeders’ Cup berth on the line. Given what this combination has created in the past, it’s no wonder you’ll find the Champion Female Sprinter of 2020 in a race called the Ballerina. After all, almost […]
The National Horseplayers Championship begins Friday at Bally’s in Las Vegas with a different vibe, new tracks, and fewer competitors. Changes aside, the biggest handicapping tournament in North America is moving forward 18 months after the 2020 NHC got in just under the COVID wire. Sponsored by the National Thoroughbred […]
Known Agenda, the talented, but temperamental colt, was retired from racing Wednesday. He’ll begin stud duty at Spendthrift Farm in 2022. The farm announced this year’s Florida Derby winner will stand for an initial fee of $10,000. No reason was given for his sudden retirement, but Known Agenda hasn’t run […]
Kentucky Downs and FanDuel announced a three-year partnership this week that will put the betting platform’s name on the track’s boutique late-summer meet. The six-day meet, which runs Sept. 5-6, 8-9, and 11-12, now goes by the name FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs. FanDuel is the parent company of the […]
After a career-best, out-of-the-clouds performance, what does Lexitonian do for an encore? How will the enigmatic sprinter follow up his Vanderbilt victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga? And is it possible? Can the 5-year-old sprinter go one better than his best? The Forego is one of six […]
The names of those racing on Saturday’s Travers Day at Saratoga sound like a Thoroughbred all-star team: Essential Quality, Gamine, Letruska, Tribhuvan, Jackie’s Warrior, Life Is Good, Whitmore, Swiss Skydiver. All of them – and others you may have heard of – are set to run in one of Saratoga’s […]
Vequist and Search Results, two of the top 3-year-old fillies in the country, will both sit out the rest of 2021, with both of their trainers telling the Daily Racing Form nothing is seriously off with either horse. The Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of 2020, Vequist was going to run in […]
Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, who hasn’t run since finishing third in the May 15 Preakness Stakes, could be back this Saturday for the Grade 3 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar. According to the Daily Racing Form, the Bob Baffert-trainee’s return is contingent on a Monday workout for the […]
Spurred by Safe Conduct’s Queen’s Plate victory, Woodbine Racetrack registered the second-highest wagering handle for Queen’s Plate Day in event history. Bettors wagered $16,122,170 on Sunday’s 13-race card at the suburban Toronto, Ontario, Canada track. That ranked second only to 2018’s Queen’s Plate Day handle of $18,005,973. Meanwhile, it surpassed […]
Fueled by an eight-figure Jackpot Pick 6 pool, Del Mar set a single-day handle record Saturday, drawing $36,005,613 in wagers. The windfall washed down on Del Mar’s 11-race Pacific Classic card. In doing so, it destroyed the previous record of $25,870,431 set on Pacific Classic day in 2018. Much of […]
There’s something of a Kevin Attard feel to this year’s Queen’s Plate, the opening jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown. A Kevin Attard feel that defines flooding the zone. The trainer sends out four horses – nearly a third of the 13-horse field – for Sunday’s Queen’s Plate on Woodbine’s […]
Bold and Bossy, an unraced 2-year-old filly, turned U.S. 41 North and Interstate 69 into an impromptu workout track after she broke out of Ellis Park and went for a joyride down the various highways and byways of northern Kentucky. The filly bolted from Ellis Park during the post parade, […]
There isn’t a lot of star power in this year’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar. What there is, however, is one of Jon White’s more challenging morning-line puzzles. Del Mar’s morning-line author, White found himself staring at one of the most competitive fields he’s faced this summer. Yes, […]
There are would-be party crashers to Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. There’s Crazy Beautiful. There’s Clairiere. Solid 3-year-olds with solid, proven resumes. However, the two “C†fillies find themselves relegated to that party-crasher role. That’s courtesy of the two “M†fillies – Malathaat and Maracuja – who hold […]
This week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 truly lives up to its name, putting out an all-graded stakes wager from Saratoga and Del Mar. The sequence includes three Grade 1s and two Grade 2s from the two tracks, located on opposite ends of the US. As usual, […]
The 3-year-old Code of Honor was one of the most dominant horses of his age group. The 4-year-old Code of Honor was one of the most disappointing. So now, after a seven-month layoff, what will we see from the 5-year-old Code of Honor? His answer comes in Saturday’s Grade 3 […]
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