Brian’s Derby prep: The Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth Stakes – Grade II, $250,000 – Gulfstream Park – 1 Mileby Brian Nadeau When I first heard this race was being shortened to 1-mile, and therefore being run at one-turn, I was really disappointed. It’s doesn’t quite have the appeal it once did and it loses a little of its luster…

Brian’s Derby prep: The week in review

A look at the week that was in Derby preps, by Brian Nadeau With little in the way of Derby prep races this weekend we’ll just take a look back at the trio of stakes that were run last weekend, as well as an important allowance Thursday at Gulfstream. We saw the reemergence of the…

Southwest Stakes preview

Preview of the Southwest Stakes – Grade III, $250,000 – Oaklawn Park – 1 Mileby Brian Nadeau Well, the Kentucky Derby Trail really gets going here, as we see the return of Old Fashioned, who many view as the horse to beat (is there such a thing three months out?) as of now. He meets…

San Vicente preview

Preview of the San Vicente Stakes – Santa Anita Park – Grade II, $150,000 – 7 FurlongsBy Brian Nadeau Well, we might as well get this out of the way early. I really have no feel for the fake stuff in terms of handicapping and I’m not a fan of it in the least overall.…

Preview of the Sam Davis

Guest analysis by Brian Nadeau: The Sam F. Davis Stakes – Tampa Bay Downs – Grade III, $225,000 – 1 1/16 miles Question: What do Bluegrass Cat and Any Given Saturday have in common? Answer: The obvious is that they were both Grade I-winning 3-year-olds trained by Todd Pletcher who were major players on the…

Entering the Derby fray

The racing gods work in mysterious ways. Just a couple of weeks ago, I felt compelled to confess publically my lack of Derby interest, and as the Road to the Roses game has begun, and the Derby preps are coming more frequently, and the racing press is dominated by news of three year old colts,…

Derby picks, by the letters

I have until now managed to avoid the dreaded Derby pick. My TBA colleagues are handicapping in depth, Alan quite traditionally; others, not so much. The Quinella Queen goes the bibliographical route, Railbird goes by the numbers, and Dana hits the romantic angle. Sue, like me, is still in search of the horse that we…