Tag: Skippylongstocking

Simplification bled heavily during this fifth-place Preakness Stakes finish at Pimlico. He returns to action at Mountaineer Park for Saturday's Grade 3 West Virginia Derby. (Image: Jerry Dzierwinski/Maryland Jockey Club)

West Virginia Derby Comes With Three Familiar Names

- 4 min read

Yes, this is the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby. Do not adjust your eyes when you see the likes of Triple Crown ex-pats Simplification, Skippylongstocking and We the People entering the starting gate for Saturday’s featured race at Mountaineer Park. The 1 1/8-mile West Virginia Derby headlines a seven-stakes, nine-race Saturday card. […]

Skippylongstocking made the most of his Belmont Stakes upstart role. He finished third as one of the two double-digit long shots in the eight-horse field. (Image: Coglianese Photos/Janet Garaguso)

Long Shot Skippylongstocking Turns a Personal Corner at the Belmont

- 2 min read

Skippylongstocking opened his career 1-for-7. He couldn’t crack 88 on the Equibase Speed Figure chart and went into Saturday’s 154th Belmont Stakes one of two double-digit long shots with his 11.80/1 surpassed only by Golden Glider’s 14.60/1. Now, he’s a Triple Crown-placed colt. The son of 2016 Preakness Stakes winner […]

Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard Mo Donegal punctuates their Belmont Stakes victory Saturday at Belmont Park. Mo Donegal's victory gave trainer Todd Pletcher his fourth Belmont Stakes title. (Image: Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo)

Getting His Mo On, Favorite Mo Donegal Captures 154th Belmont Stakes

- 4 min read

The Belmont Stakes was the race Mike Repole wanted more than any other. It was the race the entrepreneur he called “his Kentucky Derby.” The race the native New Yorker loved so much that he watched the replay numerous times of his best finisher in the race: Stay Thirsty, in […]

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset puts We the People through his Friday morning paces at Belmont Park. He is the 2/1 morning line favorite to win Saturday's 2022 Belmont Stakes. (Image: Skip . Dickstein)

Breaking Down the 2022 Belmont Stakes: Taking Constitutional Law 101

- 9 min read

The first thing you need to remember about the Belmont Stakes is forget the long-believed idea the “Test of the Champion” is easy for closers to pass. It isn’t. It sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Send horses 1 ½ miles – the longest distance any of them will ever run and […]

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas (right on his exercise pony) takes aim at his record-tying seventh Preakness Stakes title with filly Secret Oath. The Kentucky Oaks winner would be the seventh filly to win the second jewel of the Triple Crown. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Breaking Down the 2022 Preakness Stakes: More Filly Follies?

- 9 min read

The 2022 Preakness Stakes comes to you with a paradox, a wagering quandary that pits one 21st century trend against one 2020s trend. The trend this century is the friend to chalk. Since 2000, 10 favorites found the Pimlico Race Course winner’s circle. Oxbow at 15.40/1 in 2013 is the […]

Epicenter did everything right except win Steve Asmussen his first Kentucky Derby. The 4.10/1 favorite adn Derby runner up is questionable for the Preakness Stakes. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Derby Aftermath: Stunned Asmussen, Preakness Probables

- 3 min read

Still trying to process how his Kentucky Derby futility streak hit 24 races, trainer Steve Asmussen was non-committal on whether Derby runner up Epicenter would run the May 21 Preakness Stakes. The two-time Preakness winner was very committal on his level of disbelief at what transpired 50 yards from his […]