Oaklawn Park: The Grade III, $300,000 Southwest at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 10-4-2-1) by Brian Nadeau #1 Bayerd (5-1): Tricky read was a solid second in the local prep, the Smarty Jones last month, in his first two-turn start on dry land and goes for a powerful Asmussen barn that knows how…
Gulfstream Park: The Grade II, $400,000 Fountain of Youth at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 50-20-10-5) by Brian Nadeau #1 Juan and Bina (20-1): Price player won’t get much tote respect but actually ran quite well when fourth to today’s leading trio in the local prep, the GII Holy Bull last month, and,…
The roads to the Kentucky Derby and the Oaks resume this weekend, with six races at four racetracks nationwide. In the points system initiated by Churchill Downs in 2012, this weekend’s races represent the beginning of what Churchill calls the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks “Championship Series” of prep races, each race offering a total…
Fair Grounds: The Grade II, $400,000 Risen Star at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 50-20-10-5) by Brian Nadeau #1 St. Joe Bay (12-1): The likely inside speed brings some California heat to the party, as he set a pressured pace in a pair of Santa Anita two-turn routes of late, including a fourth-place…
Welcome to year seven of the Brooklyn Backstretch Kentucky Derby charity game! We started in 2009, piggybacking on the Saratoga Special Derby fantasy league; from 2010 to 2013, we used the Road to the Roses as the base for our league play. For the second year, Mike Dorr, who writes about racing at Up the…
(Update: bad weather cancelled racing at Oaklawn on Monday; Brian will be back later this week with updated analysis.) Oaklawn Park: The Grade III, $300,000 Southwest at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 10-4-2-1) by Brian Nadeau #1 J S Bach (4-1): Speedy Pletcher shipper ran off and hid from an overmatched MSW group…
In early August of 2011, my parents and I, not unusually, spent a lovely afternoon at Saratoga Race Course. With other family in town, they had to leave before the last race, but not before placing their wagers, and later that evening, my mother, from whom I inherited the hunch-betting gene, called to inquire about the…
Golden Gate Fields: The Grade III, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 10-4-2-1) by Brian Nadeau #1 Donji (30-1): Gigantic longshot gets the coveted inside post and will save all the ground, but that’s quickly where any positives end, as he’s still a maiden after seven starts and…
It’s back! Or…it’s almost back. We started this way back in 2008, and in six years, we’ve raised nearly $4,000, donating it to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, the Belmont Child Care Association, Days’ End Horse Rescue, Our Mims, Old Friends at Cabin Creek, All About Spay Neuter, ReRun, Pure Thoughts Horse Rescue, the Thoroughbred…
The connections of Shared Belief could be forgiven for looking back at 2014 and wondering, “What if?” What if Shared Belief hadn’t gotten injured in the spring and had been able to run in the Triple Crown races? What if Shared Belief hadn’t been compromised at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Classic? Those are…
Brooklyn Backstretch 