Horseplayers get one more crack at the Stronach 5 Friday before The Stronach Group takes away the cross-country Pick 5 wager. Company officials announced Wednesday the Pick 5 wager featuring TSG tracks from California to Maryland will go on hiatus. Mike Rogers, acting president of the Maryland Jockey Club, said […]
Tag: horse racing
Champion Sprinter Jackie’s Warrior Opens His Season at Count Fleet
The last time Jackie’s Warrior stepped into a starting gate, he did so as the 1/2 favorite in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar. It was supposed to be the exclamation point on a seven-figure coronation as the country’s top male sprinter. Instead, Jackie’s Warrior lost the plot. He […]
Golden Pal Blazes His Way Past Rivals, Will Return to Royal Ascot
Golden Pal first broke into the public conscience nearly two years ago when he finished second in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at a near-empty Royal Ascot. You could be forgiven for not noticing, considering not even Queen Elizabeth II made a Royal Ascot appearance. You’ll probably notice when Golden […]
Santa Anita Derby Brings You Two of the Best Kentucky Derby Prospects
When Santa Anita Park morning line author Jon White sat down to make the morning line for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, he faced one of those conundrums every morning line writer faces from time to time. With two pretty equal horses, who does he give favorite status to? […]
Smile Happy, Zandon Set Themselves Apart in Blue Grass Stakes
Keeneland’s stop on the Kentucky Derby trail, the Blue Grass Stakes, headlines opening weekend at the Lexington, KY. track. But this edition of Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Derby prep does so with a renewed prestige boost. Grade 1 status. The Blue Grass regained that status this year, putting it with the Santa Anita Derby, […]
Unbeatens Morello, Early Voting Set to Settle Matters in Wood Memorial
The Grade 2 Wood Memorial boasts a winner’s roll that any race in America would proudly sell its soul to own. There’s Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Foolish Pleasure, Genuine Risk, Count Fleet, Omaha and Gallant Fox, to name a few. Yes, with 20 Kentucky Derby winners, Aqueduct’s marquee stop on the Kentucky […]
Carter Handicap, NYRA’s First Grade 1, Sounds Like a Speaker’s Corner
The Carter Handicap is one of only two Grade 1s on Aqueduct’s schedule, with the other being December’s Cigar Mile. Yet, the seven-furlong sprint isn’t the headliner on the Big A’s 11-race card on Saturday. That would be the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, which gets top billing thanks to its […]
Cross Country Pick 5 Goes High Stakes With Derby, Oaks Preps
One of the strongest New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 offerings of the year awaits horseplayers this week. It presents an all-graded stakes sequence featuring two Grade 1s, two Grade 2s, and a strong Grade 3. And Kentucky Derby trail watchers, this wager is for you. Two of […]
New NIL Agreement Merges Kentucky QB Levis With War of Will
Taking the NIL landscape from the green turf of the football field and merging it with the bluegrass of Kentucky’s horse country, Claiborne Farm signed a NIL (name, image, likeness) partnership with University of Kentucky quarterback Will Levis. The unique NIL partnership will pair Levis with War of Will, Claiborne […]
NHC Moves from January, Adds to 2023’s March Madness in Las Vegas
As if Las Vegas wasn’t already awash in March Madness, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Wednesday it’s moving the 2023 National Horseplayers Championship from January to March. Next year’s NHC will run from March 10-12 at the rebranded Horseshoe Las Vegas, the hotel formerly known as Bally’s. That weekend […]
Wesley Ward Rides Herd Over Another Strong Keeneland Crop
Keeneland’s 15-day Spring Meet begins on Friday, offering a loaded weekend featuring 10 stakes worth $4.55 million. But this being Keeneland in the spring, many eyes are focused on just one stable. That would be Wesley Ward’s, he of the three consecutive Keeneland Spring Meet training titles. Ward comes into […]
Epicenter Your KDFW Favorite, Newcomer Messier Looms Large
The fifth and final Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) pool opens on Thursday with Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter the 5/1 favorite among the 23 individual and “All Other 3-Year-Olds” (aka The Field) choices. But, a newcomer to the pool should take plenty of money. That would be Messier, who makes […]
Tiz the Bomb Postpones European Vacation for the Kentucky Derby
Tiz the Bomb may still go to the UK for either the Epsom or Irish derbies. But before he does – if he does – the recent winner of the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks has a Kentucky Derby date on the first Saturday in May. Trainer Kenny McPeek told […]
Saffie Joseph Jr. Snaps Pletcher’s String, Wins Gulfstream Training Title
The last time Todd Pletcher didn’t win a Gulfstream Park Championship Meet title, Saffie Joseph Jr. wasn’t old enough to drink. He was barely old enough to vote. But one day after Joseph sent White Abarrio to the Grade 1 Florida Derby title, the 35-year-old trainer captured the Gulfstream Championship […]
Kentucky Derby Prep Stretch Run: Who’s Rising, Who’s Falling
Saturday’s penultimate wave of Kentucky Derby prep races brought four horses into the Derby field and taught us plenty about several others who either evolved into Derby contenders or devolved into Derby pretenders. There was White Abarrio, winning the Florida Derby in stellar fashion to punch his ticket to the […]
Favorite Secret Oath is No Secret Coming in to Arkansas Derby
In 1984, D. Wayne Lukas decided on a whim to bring back his filly Althea for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. That this was unconventional – even for those times of running horses far more often than happens now – can’t be understated. That’s because Althea ran the week before, […]
Florida Derby: The Springboard to Kentucky Derby Glory
Why the Florida Derby is a marquee race on the Kentucky Derby trail, Part the First: Six horses this century graduated from the Grade 1 flagship race at Gulfstream Park to the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle. The six: Monarchos (2001), Barbaro (2006), Big Brown (2008), Orb (2013), Nyquist (2016) and […]
Baffert’s 90-Day Suspension Starts Monday After Latest Court Setback
One of embattled trainer Bob Baffert’s last legal Hail Marys was swatted aside Friday when the Kentucky Court of Appeals denied his motion for an emergency stay of his 90-day suspension by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, which first reported the story, that means […]
Arkansas the Center of This Week’s Cross Country Pick 5
With Oaklawn Park sharing center-of-the-racing-world status with Gulfstream Park this weekend, the Arkansas track holds a near-monopoly on this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5. Four of this week’s five races come from Oaklawn Park, with Aqueduct providing the lone exception. Unlike last week’s Cross Country Pick […]
We the People Seeking to Document a Breakout Arkansas Derby
The colt with the historic name, We the People, is making his stakes preamble in Saturday’s Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. And even this late on the Kentucky Derby trail, We the People is shaking up any form of domestic tranquility among horseplayers and fans. The aptly-named son of Constitution, We […]