Haskell Field Takes Shape as Big Brown Looks Fit

The 141st Haskell Invitational field is beginning to take shape for the $1 million Grade 1 at 1 1/8 miles. Big Brown, working well for his comeback race at Monmouth Park since being eased in the Belmont Stakes, is among 33 nominees that include several likely challengers that didn't perform well in Triple Crown races. Big Brown has steadily improved while breezing [read more...]

Summerfest Sports Orgy Blitzkrieg Quiz

I'm feeling a little more A.D.D. than usual today. And being the super-spaz child that I am inside, I'm looking for answers to a thousand (and one) questions. Discuss amongst yourselves... please help me answer my most pressing doubts, concerns, and fears. Take your time... this is one of [read more...]

Horsemen, Two Tracks End Battles, But War Isn’t Over

Two tracks ended their fight with horsemen's groups assuring Calder an increase in simulcast revenue and allowing Ellis Park to race after it threatened to close. Obviously, the tracks gave in because they faced financial disaster. But the war between both sides is far from over. First, Ellis Park was on the verge of becoming the first casualty in [read more...]

Horse Racing Gets a Bad Rap Too Often

The Sport of Kings always gets a bad rap after a death on the racetrack. Criticism often comes from those that have no idea how the thoroughbred industry operates. The latest chapter in the blame game involves the unfortunate demise of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby after running a valiant second, then collapsing on the Churchill Downs main track and [read more...]

What’s Next for Big Brown: Haskell or Travers

Theories are abound on why Big Brown finished ninth and last in the Belmont Stakes. They range from possible physical problems concerning the horse to the blame game involving the trainer and jockey. I believe 18th Century German physicist Georg Cristoph Lichtenberg had it right: "Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued." Since that fateful June 7 when Big [read more...]

Brown Haze

Through the haze of 90-degree heat it was hard to see. Nine horses charged into the final turn and only eight came out sprinting. Two hundred thousand eyes searched for the ninth horse under the guise of inevitability, waiting for the colt they came to see pull away down the home stretch. But Big Brown, in a story twisted like [read more...]

Big Brown Is No. 1 in More Ways Than One

Big Brown drew the inside post in the 140th Belmont Stakes and was established as the morning line 2-5 favorite on Wednesday. The colt could go off at even lower odds on Saturday after his bullet breeze of a minute for five furlongs 24 hours earlier on Belmont Park's main track. Rick Dutrow Jr. pronounced the son of Boundary fit and [read more...]

The ‘B’ Words: Big Brown and the Buzz Horse

The A Team for the Belmont Stakes, according to the so-called racing experts, is comprised of Big Brown and Casino Drive. Both are undefeated in seven races. Big Brown already has proved he's the crème de la crème of the 3-year-old crop, winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown. The son of Boundary has scored two impressive victories from [read more...]

Belmont Stakes Is the Oldie, Goldie of the Triple Crown

The first Belmont Stakes was staged at Jerome Park on June 19, 1867, a year after its founder brought organized racing to the metropolitan New York City area. Leonard Jerome named the race for his friend August Belmont, a leading banker that helped finance the track. Jerome Park, an oddly shaped, English-style racecourse, required runners to negotiate three turns instead of [read more...]

Giddy up, does Tom Brady in drag turn me on?

I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the answer to that, because it will most likely keep me awake at night, questioning my sexuality again. Is he pretty? Why do you make me sweat at night with your sexy touchdowns cute quarterback? What I do know is that Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan in the Zimmy biopic I'm [read more...]

A Dozen Challengers Will Try to Upset Big Brown

Big Brown was installed as the heavy odds-on early favorite in the 133rd Preakness that attracted a surprising number of challengers -- 12. The last 13-horse fields came during the past decade and both winners of the Kentucky Derby prevailed: War Emblem in '02 and Charismatic in '99. Ironically, they posted slower speed figures than in Louisville. Four other Derby [read more...]

Obama: Rich Rodriguez is not my running mate

I'm not sure what Barack Obama did to the state of West Virginia -- racking up losses in every county -- but clearly he must be buddying up with former head football coach Rich Rodriguez to fall so heavily in Mountaineer country during the Democratic Primary. Hillary Clinton easily won with 67 percent of the vote to Obama's 25.7 percent. [read more...]

Big Brown Goes for the Preakness Gold

Big Brown is aiming to become the seventh Kentucky Derby champion in the past dozen years to capture the Preakness. All previous six winners -- Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide and Smarty Jones -- flirted with immortality before failing to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and the first since Affirmed in 1978. Big [read more...]

My Kentucky Derby Picks: Four Horses in Exotic Bets

Hours of research on the 134th Kentucky Derby failed to single out a horse that I feel comfortable betting to win. This is the first time in years that I must throw a dart at the bullseye on the wagering board. However, I have come up with several 3-year-olds I believe have the best chance to hit the board. Here are [read more...]

Eight Belles Tries to Follow in Winning Fillies Shoes

A filly will try her luck in the Kentucky Derby for the first time in nine years. Eight Belles attempts to become the fourth to visit the winner's circle since Regret in 1918. Regret lived up to her odds and was the only female favorite to whip the boys. She immediately went to the lead, never looked back and defeated 15 [read more...]

Post Positions Might Make a Difference in Derby

The morning line 3-1 favorite in Saturday's Kentucky Derby will break from the outside post position. It won't be the first time Big Brown has done so in his brief racing career. The son of Boundary roared out of post 12 in the Florida Derby on March 31 and won by five lengths recording the fastest 1 1/8 miles since 1996 [read more...]

Speed Figures Are Key Derby Handicapping Tool

The 134th Kentucky Derby is difficult to handicap for several reasons ranging from speed figures to varying track surfaces. For instance, a dozen contenders won 14 key preps from February through April. The only two-time winners, Pyro and Colonel John, haven’t posted a triple-digit figure this year. Pyro ran a dismal 10th in the Blue Grass on Keeneland’s Polytrack. The son of [read more...]

Wood Memorial Is Do or Die for War Pass

The 84th running of the Wood Memorial should answer the question about War Pass: Is the last place runner in the Tampa Bay Derby back on track to the Churchill Downs? The son of Cherokee Run breezed four furlongs in a snappy 47 2/5 at Palm Meadows on March 27. It was the fastest of 11 at the distance on the [read more...]

Historic Florida Derby Attracts a Large Field

If the size of the $1 million Florida Derby field is any indication, it's going to be a wide-open affair. As many as a dozen sophomores could be battling it out Saturday afternoon. Over the past four decades I've witnessed just about every race, mostly in person, but some on TV or via simulcast. Quite a few have been impressive, but [read more...]

My Top 10 on the Road to Churchill Downs

There's less than seven weeks until the 134th Kentucky Derby, so I guess it's time to roll out my initial list of the Top 10 for America's Greatest Race. Only one thing is certain at this time – no sibling of a Derby champ will wind up in the winner's circle on the first Saturday in May. Quite a few sires [read more...]

Three Preps Will Thin Traffic on Road to the Roses

Three Kentucky Derby preps should thin the ranks of hopefuls aiming for the grand 3-year-old prize on the first Saturday in May.The major player in Saturday's $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby is 2007 Breeders' Cup juvenile champ War Pass, who sent the Sam F. Davis Stakes winner scurrying north to Oaklawn Park for the $300,000 Rebel Stakes. Fierce Wind, victorious at Tampa [read more...]

Louisiana Derby Features the Red Hot Pyro

Fair Grounds is a most historic track. It's the oldest site of horse racing in the United States still in operation. But back in 1852 when it began, the facility was ironically known as Union Race Course deep in the heart of Dixie.Sometimes it was referred to as the New Orleans Fair Grounds. In 1863, it was called Fair Grounds [read more...]

Playing The Pick 3

Parimutuel wagering is fairly new compared to horse racing, whose modern origins date back to the 12th Century. That's when English knights returned from the Crusades with swift Arab horses.Over the next 400 years, a growing number of imported Arab stallions were bred to English mares, producing horses that combined speed and endurance. Parimutuel wagering is only 143 years old. Pierre [read more...]

If It’s Gulfstream Park – It’s the Speed, Buster

Gulfstream Park has always had the reputation of being a speed track. Before the 1999 Breeders' Cup, which I covered for a chain of Central Florida newspapers, there were complaints the track favored speed too much.During the second of three BC spectaculars at the South Florida track in '92, four of five winners on the main track were within two [read more...]

Exacta-ly Right

I once knew a turf writing handicapper who refused to bet on favorites when the odds dropped below 3-1. The late Jack Slater - who has a stakes named for him at Gulfstream Park - did pretty well with this theory.However, my Miami Herald colleague for many years only bet to win. I realized that if you want to gain [read more...]

Gulfstream Park: Something Old, Something New

There's an old adage dating back centuries that describes Gulfstream Park: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.The fifth line of the saying relating to the wedding custom is often left out: And a silver sixpence in her shoe. A sixpence minted in Britain from 1551 to 1967 was made of silver and worth six pennies. In 1530, racing in [read more...]

Breaking Down the Belmont

The third and oldest jewel of the Triple Crown appears to be a two-horse race between Curlin [shown at right passing Street Sense in the Preakness] and Hard Spun.The absence of Street Sense has ushered in a couple more challengers, but they shouldn't alter the results. Here's a look at the horses and how they should finish in the 139th [read more...]

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