Between them, Maximum Security and Improbable are 5-for-6 in 2020, which makes a race called the Awesome Again Stakes the perfect meeting place for two of the top older horses in the nation, if not the world. The two Bob Baffert charges take each other on for the first time […]
Bob Baffert is sending three of the five starters out for Saturday’s Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita Park, but make no mistake as to which Baffert bears attention: precocious Princess Noor. The Chandelier is one of seven stakes on Santa Anita’s packed Saturday card. It sends the five […]
Say “hello†to Jackie’s Warrior, Dr. Schivel, Freedom Fighter, and Sittin on Go. You may not know much about them right now, but you’ll be hearing a lot more about these four — and other 2-year-olds — over the next seven months. Ignore for the moment the 2020 Kentucky Derby […]
There was a thin sense of normalcy to the 2020 Kentucky Derby. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert won his record-tying sixth Derby, this time with Authentic. And unheralded Mr Big News played this year’s designated long shot, blowing up many tickets – in good ways and bad – by […]
Historians 100 years from now will note the 2020 Kentucky Derby took place the first Saturday in September, instead of the first Saturday in May. They’ll note that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, America’s annual racing bacchanalia was shy of bacchanalia because Churchill Downs was shy of spectators. Barring any […]
Gamine has been an unstoppable force. Swiss Skydiver, the prototypical immovable object. That prompts the inevitable question surrounding Friday’s Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs: Who will prevail and emerge as the best 3-year-old filly in America? The unstoppable force that is even-money Gamine? Or the immovable object that […]
The fact nobody has ever won the Kentucky Derby from post 17 didn’t dissuade Churchill Downs morning line oddsmaker, Mike Battaglia, from making Tiz the Law a 3/5 favorite for Saturday’s 146th Kentucky Derby. The Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes champion drew post 17 in the 18-horse field, the smallest […]
At even-money, Gamine enters Friday’s Kentucky Oaks as the shortest-priced favorite in 11 years, where she looms large over the smallest Oaks field in 15 years. Gamine starts the 146th running of the prestigious 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies from post 5 in the nine-horse field, drawn Monday afternoon […]
The jockey dominoes on Kentucky Derby riders began to fall this weekend when Jose and Irad Ortiz Jr. elected to stay at Saratoga and skip the Derby. Along with the brothers Ortiz, Joel Rosario and Luis Saez will remain in New York and finish out Saratoga’s meet, according to the […]
Nearly four months from its initial announcement to withhold Saudi Cup purse money, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia announced it will award prize money to the horses finishing second through 10th. That conspicuously excludes race winner Maximum Security. The JCSA said it will withhold prize money from Maximum Security […]
Gamine has passed every test facing her on the track: breaking her maiden, winning an allowance, and romping to a near-record time in her first Grade 1. So Saturday’s Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga is a natural for the 3-year-old, Bob Baffert-trained filly. A seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, […]
The reigning Belmont Stakes victor is in the field as your deserved race favorite. So is one member of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s 3-year-old Derby Legion of Doom. And so are a wealth of upstarts seeking to make Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes another trip into Saratoga’s “Graveyard […]
The legacy Uncle Chuck faces in only his third start — and first Grade 1 stakes race — can be found in the Travers Stakes record book. You only have to go back four years to Arrogate’s performance in the 2016 Travers to find it. It’s one of the many […]
He’s back and he’s back as the even-money – for now — favorite. And lest you think Tiz the Law can’t handle the 1 ¼-mile distance he faces for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Barclay Tagg is here to disabuse you of that […]
Thousand Words is now out of the Kentucky Derby futures shadow. And Cezanne is now out of the Derby futures picture. Those are the oddsmakers’ takeaways from last weekend’s Derby Prep – the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar. Thousand Words, who spent the spring disappointing and the summer disappearing […]
Honor A.P. is safely in the Kentucky Derby. So safe, he’s one of the favorites. Thousand Words is not-so-safely on the Derby bubble. And Cezanne is nowhere near the Churchill Downs gate, nor the bubble. That’s the scenario all three would-be Derby contenders face entering Saturday’s Shared Belief Stakes at […]
You won’t have to wait until the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby to see Uncle Chuck take on Tiz the Law. Not after trainer Bob Baffert confirmed he will send Uncle Chuck to New York for the Aug. 8 Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga. With Belmont Stakes champion Tiz the […]
All the pieces were in place to beat Maximum Security. He had a new jockey, a new trainer, a new track he hadn’t seen before — one that some of the best horses of their generations couldn’t figure out. And yet, while Saturday’s San Diego Handicap was the best opportunity […]
Go long and far, or go short and stay home. When it came to deciding where prize colt McKinzie would run next, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert opted for the six-furlong Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar over the 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes at Saratoga. Instead, Baffert sends Improbable […]
As hard as it is to fathom, given his dominance over major races, there are races Bob Baffert can’t solve. So in true Baffert form, for one of those races — the San Diego Handicap — Baffert is calling in maximum reinforcements. He’s bringing in Maximum Security, who makes his […]
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