Is Gio Ponti still on Dubai time?
First, the bad news – last year’s Belmont champ Summer Bird has been retired. It’s particularly unfortunate, as he seemed to be coming into his own toward the end of last season, just before the injury. Given the economy and the timing of his retirement (he’s essentially missed [...]
Eskendereya gets a paycheck for someone
We finally had a weekend of real Derby preps! Eskendereya put in the fine performance we expected to see last week – and then some. His runaway win in the Fountain of Youth earned a 106 Beyer – the highest by a 3-year-old so far this season, and his [...]
Gaining 100 pounds can be good for some
Road to the Roses kicks off this weekend, and while I have no idea why the Turf Paradise Derby and the El Camino Real Derby are scoring races (although at least the latter is graded), the rest should be very interesting indeed.
First up is the Hutcheson at [...]
Gabby's Golden Gal
Perhaps the most exciting race of the previous weekend was the Santa Monica – somehow, Gabby’s Golden Gal went off at 11-1 odds. Granted, she did not show much in her final effort as a 3-year-old (and first race since a disappointing effort in July), finishing a distant seventh behind Evita Argentina [...]
Last night, they handed out a few awards for horse racing – you may have heard a bit about it.
2-year-old male: Lookin at LuckyAs per usual with the juvenile awards, there was no surprise here. His three G1 wins sealed the deal, and he looks to improve this year. We’ll soon find out if [...]
While things are slowly gearing up in Florida and racing continues apace in California, one horse will most definitely be absent – Lava Man has been re-retired after his disheartening comeback race last month. His connections have remained true to their word that he would only remain in training if he could compete at [...]
While Zenyatta’s historic win in the Classic seems to eclipse the rest of the two-day event, there were many other interesting storylines – each race stood out in its own way this year.
MarathonWhat a fascinating result – nine-year-old Cloudy’s Knight very nearly got there to be the oldest Breeders’ Cup winner on record (and jockey [...]
We’ll just go straight in for the commentary – latest updates always on Twitter.
Juvenile TurfI had Viscount Nelson with Pounced in my exacta, so I won’t be cashing any tickets, but it was a very professional effort by Pounced (with more than a little help from Frankie Dettori). In any event, it’s always fun [...]
#, Horse, Trainer, Jockey, ML odds
1 Mine That Bird, Chip Woolley, C. Borel, 12-1Perhaps unfairly overlooked; he does have the rail and Bo-Rail.
2 Colonel John, Eoin Harty, G. Gomez, 12-1Solid runner is flying a bit under the radar.
3 Summer Bird, Tim Ice, K. Desormeaux, 9/2Gets better and better each time out – can’t wait to [...]
Although we had the rare luxury last weekend of enjoying racing on normal-ish television for two days in a row, we’re now in that odd pre-Breeders’ Cup holding pattern, where we wait on the who’s-going-where decisions.
One that’s already been made is that Sea the Stars will not be coming to the Breeders’ Cup, but will, [...]
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