The fact Sole Volante’s connections announced late Monday he will run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes is noteworthy on a couple of fronts. First, it’s a horse committing to the first leg of a revamped Triple Crown. This has become a novelty over the last three weeks, with defections […]
Even with him remaining in Ireland, Aidan O’Brien remains ever-omnipresent over the Royal Ascot meet. And even with her remaining at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II remains ever-hopeful she can add to her victory total at Europe’s richest racing meet. O’Brien, the most dominant trainer in Europe, sends 5/4 favorite […]
Will this be the year the skittish Battaash finally breaks through at Royal Ascot? His nemesis for the past two years, Blue Point, is off to the stud barn. And, there will be no crowds – polite and well-dressed as Royal Ascot crowds are – to send his nerves buzzing. […]
There will be no Royal procession at Royal Ascot this year. The 220,000 finger sandwiches, 120,000 buttermilk scones, and 80,000 cups of tea consumed last year won’t be challenged this year. And the Royal Ascot purses took a royal trimming, sliced by 55% to £3.68 million from the planned £8.095 […]
Bettors in 10 countries will have an easier time getting action on this week’s Royal Ascot meet, courtesy of a joint venture between the British Tote and various worldwide betting entities that instituted the Royal Ascot World Pool. Combined with the tote, the World Pool creates a single betting pool, […]
The Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park honors the late Ogden Phipps, the former chairman of The Jockey Club, and the textbook definition of the term “blue-blood.†A member of both the International Tennis and National Museum of Racing halls of fame, Phipps was a prominent New York […]
Instead of shipping her cross-country to Belmont Park for Saturday’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes, John Sadler could have run Ollie’s Candy on his home track at Santa Anita Park. The Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes was cozily sitting right there, like a ripe-for-the-picking peach. Plus, the Santa Maria came […]
Breaking from a different gate than its larger racetrack brethren in this COVID-19 era, Lone Star Park will open its gates to fans beginning Sunday. The gates remain open through Aug. 11, the tentative end of the Texas racetrack’s summer meet. Beating Lone Star by four days in allowing fans […]
There was no reason to adjust your eyes, even in today’s pampered horseracing atmosphere where star horses don’t race more than once a month – if that. There were three Kentucky Derby hopefuls – Sole Volante, Ete Indien, and Shivaree — running a $55,000 allowance race on an otherwise ordinary […]
Right on the hoofprints of Maxfield’s injury and subsequent departure from the Kentucky Derby Trail, Louisiana Derby winner Wells Bayou suffered bone bruising that will keep him out of the Sept. 5 Derby. Currently third on the active Derby qualifying points ladder with 104, Wells Bayou breezed a half-mile in […]
Illustrating another example of the precarious nature of Thoroughbred horse racing, Kentucky Derby contender Maxfield injured his front right leg during a routine workout on Wednesday. He will miss the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby after suffering a condylar fracture in his leg. If this sounds eerily familiar, it should. This […]
One day last month, Matt Metcalf, Circa Sportsbook’s Director, brought a homework assignment to Paul Zilm, his risk supervisor: Create a Kentucky Derby Futures Board from scratch. And when you finish, knock out one for the Belmont Stakes. Off Zilm went, spending much of the next two-plus weeks watching every […]
The Arlington Million, Illinois’ biggest horse race of the year, is the most prominent casualty of a deadlock between Arlington Park officials and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association agreeing on a new contract. The two entities came to a tentative agreement on a daily purse structure for a 30-day meet […]
The Santa Anita Derby did what the West Coast’s premier Kentucky Derby prep always does – put another quality front-runner in the front row of Derby hopefuls for the Sept. 5 Run for the Roses. At the same time, it provided a good time to see where the top 3-year-olds […]
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s vaunted Big Three Kentucky Derby contenders is now down to a Big One with the news that Charlatan will miss the Kentucky Derby with an ankle injury. Baffert told Paulick Report Publisher Ray Paulick the undefeated Speighstown progeny suffered “a filling in a front […]
Even with tracks emerging from coronavirus shutdowns throughout May, Thoroughbred racing handles for the month plummeted compared to their 2019 totals, according to Equibase’s monthly report on horse racing’s economic indicators. The biggest individual culprit for May’s decline was easy to pinpoint: no Kentucky Derby and no Preakness Stakes. The […]
Quadrilateral is the favorite. Millsie is the sentimental favorite, thanks to her trainer, Jessica Harrington. And Love is the value favorite for Sunday’s 1000 Guineas on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket. The 1000 Guineas is the second of England’s four Classic races. Dating to 1814, it sends out the UK’s […]
The Hollywood Gold Cup gets its name back, the name it held for 76 years until 2014. It gets three-time champion: 19-year-old Lava Man, back to lead the post parade. And one of the most respected races for older horses gets an eclectic field of Grade 1 winners and placers […]
Even in a year where the COVID-19 pandemic pushed matters from April to June, Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby storylines begin where they usually do – in Bob Baffert’s Santa Anita Park barn. After all, where else to begin than the barn that produced nine previous Santa Anita Derby […]
The depth of the Grade 1 Carter Handicap field provides exotic bettors with a dream handicap opportunity. The mind reels with the exacta, trifecta and superfecta possibilities in a race featuring some of the top sprinting talent in the country. The flip side of that coin, however, comes with figuring […]
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