Santa Anita: The $1 million GI Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 100-40-20-10) by Brian Nadeau You can also check out Brian’s analysis of the Wood Memorial and the Blue Grass. #1 Instilled Regard (5-1): Fair Grounds’ GIII Lecomte winner was exposed a bit in their GII Risen Star when…
Keeneland: The $1 million GII Blue Grass at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-40-20-10) by Brian Nadeau You can also check out Brian’s analysis of the Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby. #1 Zing Zang (30-1): Deep, deep closer heads north in a last-chance effort to make the Kentucky Derby after failing…
Aqueduct: The $750,000 GII Wood Memorial at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 100-40-20-10) by Brian Nadeau Also check out Brian’s analysis of the Blue Grass and the Santa Anita Derby. #1 Heartfullofstars (20-1): Santa Anita invader was all-out to win a restricted MSW last time after dueling on the lead through fast fractions…
Meydan: The $2 million GII UAE Derby at about 1 3/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-40-20-10) Like it or not, a race some 7,393 miles away from Churchill Downs could very likely send two horses to the Kentucky Derby, and with Coolmore’s #4 MENDELSSOHN and Godolphin’s #5 GOLD TOWN (GB) having designs on the…
Gulfstream Park: The $1 million GI Florida Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-40-20-10) #1 Strike Power (4-1): The expected inside speed got caught napping a bit when second in last month’s local prep, the GII Fountain of Youth, when fellow rival Promises Fulfilled broke sharply, was able to get over and…
Earlier this week, a few minutes before the draw for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, trainer Jonathan Thomas sat by himself in a corner. He wasn’t consulting a condition book. He wasn’t talking to a client. He wasn’t even looking at his phone. He was just… sitting there. Though the Florida Derby was…
On a cold March afternoon, Joan Taylor and Bill Wilmot stood in the paddock at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. They’d traveled nearly four hours from their farm in Saratoga Springs to watch Holiday Disguise, the 4-year-old filly they’d bred and sold as a weanling, run in the Heavenly Prize Stakes and try to…
Sunland Park: The Grade II, $800,000 Sunland Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 50-20-10-5) by Brian Nadeau While this year’s Sunland Derby doesn’t figure to have a lasting impact on the Kentucky Derby, it is an automatic qualifier of sorts, as the winner will be all but guaranteed a spot in the…
Fair Grounds: The $1 million GII Louisiana Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-40-20-10) by Brian Nadeau #1 Bravazo (7-2): Streaking Calumet homebred has turned into a different horse this year for Lukas, as he’s 2-for-2 and enters off an upset win last month in the local prep, the GII Risen Star,…
Oaklawn Park: The Grade II, $900,000 Rebel at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 50-20-10-5 by Brian Nadeau #1 Title Ready (8-1): Price player is the first of three for Asmussen and really impressed in his 3-year-old debut, when he added blinkers and walloped a N1X crew over the track and distance, while far…
Brooklyn Backstretch 