On Sunday after some exciting racing on Saturday a lot of people might be focused on football. After all it is week 2 in the NFL and excitement is high. I will be focused on Belmont and the one-mile Pebbles Stakes on the grass. A filly I was waiting for to run back showed up in a new barn and I think I will take a shot on her. Let’s look at the field. Plum Ali breaks from the rail and has both class and talent. What she doesn’t have is speed and she [...]
Twelve fillies and mares are scheduled to start practically on the turn of this over the hills and through the meadows turf course at Kentucky Downs in the Ladies Sprint. Leave it to me to come up with a horse starting on the far outside. Constantia will break from post 12 but I must imagine Umberto Rispoli will allow her to drop back around that sweeping turn and use that forever never-ending stretch to her advantage. If you watch the replay of her January 3rd win at Santa Anita, a race where some of [...]
There are not a lot of races with the kind of storied history the Jockey Club Gold Cup has. Sadly, of late it has lost some of its previous luster. It was a race that made champions and champions competed in. It has been run at two miles, and a mile and a half. Today it is a mile and a quarter, a reflection of how much American racing has changed. In an attempt to restore some of the lost glory NYRA has moved the still Grade 1 race to legendary Saratoga to close [...]
The Travers, or as they say the midsummer Derby will be run Saturday at legendary Saratoga Race Course. The Feld is led by two year old champion Essential Quality who won the Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy in his two most recent starts. He will be a solid and deserving favorite perhaps at odds of 4-5 or 3-5. Is he worth that short a price? That only you can answer but for me he would have to have no knocks or nicks in the armor as I say. The only race Essential Quality lost [...]
The Alabama has always been one of my favorite stakes not only at the Saratoga meet, but throughout the entire year. Maybe it’s because it is a mile and a quarter compared to the Kentucky Oaks mile and an eighth, or maybe because I made a big win bet on It’s in the Air to upset Davona Dale in the race all those years ago. Malathaat was looked at as a foregone conclusion when odds on in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks over this track when upset at the wire. Maracuja beat [...]