Courtesy of a $10,000 bet by Houston area furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack McIngvale, Smile Happy closed as the individual 8/1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 1. McIngvale dropped the bet down around 5 p.m. ET, knocking Smile Happy’s odds from 15/1 to 9/1. Even with […]
Traffic on the Kentucky Derby trail picks up again Saturday with a full cast of 14 entered in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, the headlining race on Churchill Downs’ Saturday card. Up for grabs are 10-4-2-1 Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers, along with another Derby prospect […]
In August, Steve Asmussen took the mantle as North America’s winningest career trainer. On Thanksgiving Day, he went from macro record-setter to micro record-setter, winning what is believed to be a record five races on one card at Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs officials said records prior to 1991 are incomplete, […]
The Grade 1 Clark Stakes provides the final opportunity for Maxfield to grab a Grade 1 win. It’s an opportunity for Midnight Bourbon to shake his seconditis and grab his first Grade 1. And it provides a great opportunity for Dr. Post and King Fury to grab validation in their […]
Last year, Bonny South came into the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap as the 8/5 favorite. She didn’t run to those odds, finishing a distant second, six lengths behind winner Envoutante. And yet, Churchill Downs morning-line author Mike Battaglia has no issue making her this year’s 9/5 favorite for the […]
One of the more interesting prop wagers in horse racing, betting on the sire of the future Kentucky Derby champion, opens Thursday with “All Other Sires†as the early 6/1 favorite. The Kentucky Derby Sire Future Pool is offered concurrently with Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, but […]
In case you’re curious, the first Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool opens this weekend with “All Other Colts and Geldings from the 2019 Foal Crop†as the even-money favorite. It also opens with the current Las Vegas futures favorite, Corniche, literally missing from action. Currently 6/1 at Caesars at William […]
The question surrounding Obligatory, the 5/2 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 3 Chilukki at Churchill Downs, is an obligatory one, given the filly’s 2021 season. Will we see the Obligatory who won her last race at Churchill Downs, the Grade 2 Eight Belles on April 30 at 16/1? Or will […]
Betting on Tyler Gaffalione at Churchill Downs on Friday was a no-lose proposition, as the jockey won all six of his races on the card. Gaffalione, who owns six Churchill Downs riding titles, put his name in another chapter of the track’s record book. He became the 12th jockey scoring […]
After a nearly month-long “review process†on Bob Baffert’s status, Breeders’ Cup officials announced on Sunday that the Hall of Fame trainer can enter this year’s Nov. 5-6 event at Del Mar, with certain conditions. Those conditions include extra testing of his entries, which Baffert will pay for, along with […]
Knicks Go is back in his Churchill Downs stall, coming in off a resounding victory in one of the biggest older-horse races in the country. And he’s running against a familiar crew of competent, but hardly imposing, rivals. As Breeders’ Cup Classic tune-ups go, this one couldn’t come on a […]
The Breeders’ Cup announced this weekend that it began reviewing whether Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert can send his horses to this year’s event, set for Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar. The process began in the wake of the New York Racing Association’s scheduled Sept. 27 hearing for the […]
The Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes open the gate for the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail. But perhaps winning the first points race on the Derby trail is a poisoned chalice. Win the 1 1/16-mile Iroquois, named after the first American horse to win the Epsom Derby – along with the Native […]
Horse racing continues its return from the post-Saratoga/Del Mar hiatus today, with the beginning of Churchill Downs’ 12-day September Meet. The Kentucky track joins Belmont Park, which began its fall meet Wednesday. All 117 September races at Churchill Downs will run on dirt. The track began work on its new […]
When the Road to the 2022 Kentucky Derby begins Saturday, Sept. 18, the trail to the Run for the Roses will proceed without the trainer synonymous with Derby success: Bob Baffert. Churchill Downs announced in a Friday statement that no Derby qualifying points will be awarded to “any horse trained […]
Churchill Downs will offer only one Grade 1 event during its September and Fall Meets. But, even as interesting as the Grade 1 Clark Stakes is on the day after Thanksgiving, there are other races further down the class food chain worth some serious attention. Those races are the track’s […]
Hidden on the Stephen Foster undercard last weekend at Churchill Downs was a horse who probably flew below your radar: Set Piece. He didn’t fly below bettor’s radars in the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes, however, going off as the 8/5 favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race for older horses. […]
There is Maxfield, looming over the rest of the Stephen Foster field like the 1,200-pound behemoth he is. And there’s Maxfield, running under the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs like the dominant older horse he has become. Turning Maxfield loose at Churchill Downs has produced about as reliable an outcome […]
Trainer Fausto Gutierrez turned Churchill Downs’ Spring Meet closing day from impressive to electric when he told the Daily Racing Form on Sunday that his star mare, Letruska, will run the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes. That turns the already-deep, 1 1/8-mile Fleur de Lis into a Grade 1-worthy […]
There was Dr Schivel returning on one side of the country, Enforceable, Finnick the Fierce, Core Beliefs and Sonneman tangling on the other. This eclectic group of familiar names made up for a weekend devoid of Grade 1 races in North America with two intriguing allowance races on both sides […]
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