The odds of hitting all seven races on last Friday’s Royal Ascot card were 122,889/1, according to William Hill. And yet, two horseplayers on opposite ends of the world managed to beat those odds and hit the improbable wager. And both did it in proverbial lottery fashion. An English bettor […]
Dubai Racing Club stewards fined jockey Frankie Dettori $13,600 (AED 50,000) for excessively whipping Country Grammer during their winning trip in the $12 million Dubai World Cup. That takes a small chunk out of the $750,000 Dettori won for piloting the Bob Baffert-trained 5-year-old to victory. Co-owned by Amr Zedan […]
Country Grammer left clues in last month’s Saudi Cup he was just about back. In Saturday’s Dubai World Cup, he announced in rousing fashion he was all the way back. The 5-year-old Bob Baffert charge and 9/1 offering in international odds ran down front-running 2/5 favorite Life Is Good over […]
The very aptly named Modern Games “won” the finale on Friday’s Breeders’ Cup five-race, all-juvenile card, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Except bettors didn’t collect a dime from his score. Fasten your seat belts. This Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf will live in betting infamy for a long time. How many […]
Having stewards elevate Campanelle to victory was a novel way for trainer Wesley Ward to win his 12th Royal Ascot race. But after the American trainer endured a less-than-regal slog at Royal Ascot this week, Ward was not throwing this Group 1 Commonwealth Cup victory back. Off as the 5/1 […]
Can Stradivarius, a horse named after a musical instrument, equal Yeats, a horse named after a poet? That next landmark awaits the 7-year-old horse as Thursday’s Day 3 storyline at Royal Ascot. That landmark would be a fourth consecutive Gold Cup title, which would tie Stradivarius with Yeats. He won […]
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes gives you defending champion Lord North with leading jockey Frankie Dettori and standout trainer John Gosden getting an assist from his son, Thady. What could possibly go wrong for the 5-year-old gelding in Royal Ascot’s Day 2 marquee race? Well, that’s what Love’s got to […]
Adam Kirby wasn’t supposed to be on Epsom Derby surprise winner Adayar. And Adayar wasn’t supposed to sniff the Epsom Derby winner’s circle. Not at 16/1, and not as Godolphin’s third-string colt. But in a replay of the Kentucky Derby here in the US, colts don’t realize they’re not supposed […]
Jockeys racing as teams for more than £2 million in prize money will provide the latest horse racing twist when the inaugural Racing League season opens in the United Kingdom this summer. What is the Racing League? How does it work? And who will we see riding for that prize […]
Two days before his expected coronation as Horse of the Year, Authentic took home the No. 2 spot in the 2020 Longines World Racing Awards. This translates to the Into Mischief colt being named the second-ranked horse in the world. It also translates into Authentic earning top honors as the […]
What’s been a given in Europe became a given throughout the world when Frankie Dettori captured the title of World’s Best Jockey for the third consecutive year in 2020. The award came from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA). The award isn’t subjective. It’s based on a rider’s performances […]
Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien enjoys a wonderfully magical training career, generally free of moguls or other bumps. But as he sends Magical and Mogul out in search of his seventh Breeders’ Cup Turf title, O’Brien does so along an uncharacteristically bumpy road on this side of the Atlantic. Whatever Irish […]
The British Champions Long Distance Cup is where dominance ended for Stradivarius last year. And after his seventh-place finish in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the British Champions Long Distance Cup is where Stradivarius seeks to regain it this year. And bettors think he will. The standout Irish stayer […]
Record-breaking mare Enable retired on Monday when her Juddmonte Farms connections announced she would begin her breeding career next year. The announcement came in a written statement from Juddmonte Farms early Monday. The statement announced that Enable’s first date next spring is with the stallion Kingman. “After consulting her trainer […]
Horseplayers, your handicapping homework for Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is minimal. No need to crunch volumes of numbers, because trainers for the Ascot race crunched them for you. They crunched them down to four horses for the Group 1, 1 ½-mile race at Ascot. Despite its […]
This will test every ounce of Frankie Dettori’s considerable and well-chronicled riding skill. His mission is to win Saturday’s Epsom Derby aboard favored English King from Stall (Gate) No. 1. In English racing, that’s on the outside rail. At Epsom, it’s the Stall of Death. That stall hasn’t sent out […]
The horse was named for a survivor of the infamous 1972 plane crash in the Andes, which made Nando Parrado such an international celebrity that Ethan Hawke played him in the movie. And the horse Nando Parrado became an instant celebrity Saturday, becoming the biggest longshot to win a race […]
If you’re ever fortunate enough to gain entrance to the Royal enclosure at Ascot, you’ll see a statue of jockey Frankie Dettori, who rides Stradivarius in Thursday’s Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. The monument commemorates his “Magnificent Seven” victory performance at Royal Ascot in 1996 when he took a multi-million-pound […]
There will be no Royal procession at Royal Ascot this year. The 220,000 finger sandwiches, 120,000 buttermilk scones, and 80,000 cups of tea consumed last year won’t be challenged this year. And the Royal Ascot purses took a royal trimming, sliced by 55% to £3.68 million from the planned £8.095 […]
Tour de France Odds: Can Jonas Vingegaard or Primoz Roglic Dethrone Tadej Pogacar? 
Knicks Draft Night: Dump Kemba Walker, Trade #11 Pick for 3 First-Rounders 
Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana Lead Field of Eight Chess Hopefuls at 2022 Candidates Tournament 
Consecutive NBA Titles: Celtics 8 Straight, Phil Jackson Three-Peats with Bulls and Lakers 
Candidates Tournament: Nepomniachtchi Beats Firouzja to Take Solo Lead After Four Rounds