Somehow, the Swiss Skydiver Stakes Tour bypassed Belmont Park. Somehow, the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly missed the biggest racing sandbox of them all – Big Sandy. How did a filly who won six graded stakes races over five racetracks miss America’s largest racetrack, Belmont Park? An oversight? Well, it’s an oversight […]
Tag: Kenny McPeek
Unbeaten Malathaat Takes Favorite Status in Kentucky Oaks
Malathaat and her undefeated record earned 5/2 morning-line favorite status for Friday’s 147th Kentucky Oaks at Monday morning’s post-position draw and morning-line announcement. The 1 1/8-mile Oaks anchors Churchill Downs’ 13-race, six-stakes Friday card. The 14-filly field of 3-year-olds runs for a $767,250 first-prize check out of the $1.25 million […]
Derby Dominoes: King Fury, Keepmeinmind In, Three Others Out
Two weeks ago, King Fury needed a miracle of falling Kentucky Derby dominoes to get him into the 2021 Kentucky Derby field. On Friday, the Lexington Stakes champion got that miracle. After the defections of Dream Shake and Hozier Friday and Get Her Number’s Saturday defection, King Fury sits comfortably […]
Monomoy Girl vs. Swiss Skydiver Brings Fans a Tasty Apple Blossom
You could make a credible case the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park is the clubhouse leader for the best race of 2021. The reason you can make that case leads you to make cases for the two principals in Saturday’s Oaklawn headliner. Even-money favorite Monomoy Girl vs. […]
Ashland Oaks Grows Another Filly Rivalry: Malathaat vs. Simply Ravishing
The Grade 1 Ashland Oaks is following the path of this year’s Kentucky Oaks prep races, which involves pitting two standouts against each other in a makeshift regional rivalry. You had Travel Column and Clairiere in the Fair Grounds Oaks in Louisiana. Beautiful Gift and Moraz tangle at Santa Anita […]
A Beautiful Finish Was in Swiss Skydiver’s Eye in the Beholder
Bring the jury in on Swiss Skydiver. Throw out whatever doubts you may have held on the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly impressing as a 4-year-old. Swiss Skydiver didn’t exactly pick up in 2021 where she left off in 2020 after stumbling out of the gate at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Her […]
Swiss Skydiver Returns to Track, Virus Knocks Maxfield Out of Pegasus
As one 2020 standout returned to training, another one returned to the shelf – albeit temporarily. Swiss Skydiver hit the track, running for the first time since November’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, while a report said Maxfield suffered a virus that will keep him out of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational. […]
You’ll See a Lasix-Free Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in 2021
The 2021 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks will mark the first time in the history of those prestigious races that horses may run without furosemide, better known by its brand name Lasix. The ban on the powerful anti-bleeding medication, widely employed at tracks all over the country, extends to the […]
Not Every Horse Retired in 2020: Here are the Stars to See in 2021
Now that we’ve bid farewell to the Thoroughbred standouts who retired in 2020, which horses will we greet as the returning equine stars worthy of attention in 2021? We bid farewell to Authentic, Improbable, Maximum Security, Vekoma, Tom’s d’Etat, War of Will, McKinzie, Serengeti Empress, Enable, and Ghaiyyath in recent […]
Winning Preakness Complicates Swiss Skydiver’s Breeders’ Cup Plans
She’s run with the boys. Now, with her Preakness victory last Saturday, Swiss Skydiver beat the boys. So what’s the next challenge for one of the great North American fillies of her generation? That would be the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. That much, we know. But what are […]
The Triple Crown Ends Here: Breaking Down the 2020 Preakness Stakes
It’s October 2020, which in this bizarre of all bizarre years, means it’s Preakness Stakes time. That there is no Triple Crown at stake does not mean there is nothing at stake in the third and final jewel of a wild, 15-week Triple Crown campaign. The 2020 American Classics trail […]
It’s Official: Swiss Skydiver Jumps into Preakness Stakes
Swiss Skydiver’s trainer Kenny McPeek confirmed Saturday his star filly will take on the boys in next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. McPeek told the Daily Racing Form that the decision to run Swiss Skydiver in the final Triple Crown race of 2020 “was one of the toughest decisions of my career.†[…]
Swiss Skydiver’s Next Plunge Could be at Preakness Stakes
A second crack at Art Collector and a first crack at a Triple Crown race. That’s what Swiss Skydiver’s connections ponder as they explore running the filly in the Preakness Stakes. Kenny McPeek, Swiss Skydiver’s trainer, said the Oct. 3 Preakness at Pimlico is in the mix for the standout […]
Gamine Takes Even Money Favored Status In Kentucky Oaks
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 […]