Tag: Highly Motivated

Cyberknife (inside) held off a surging Taiba at the wire to win the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes. He set a Monmouth Park record for 1 1/8 miles along the way. (Image: Monmouth Park)

Cyberknife Carves His Way To Haskell Title, Monmouth Park Record

Cyberknife not only left the heralded Haskell Stakes duel between Jack Christopher and Taiba in the dust, he left both horses behind – along with the Monmouth Park track record for 1 1/8 miles. Also left behind was Jack Christopher’s aura of invincibility, along with Chad Brown’s chances of sweeping […]

Jack Christopher destroyed his Woody Stephens competition by 10 lengths last out. He is the 3/2 second choice to win the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes. That's the fourth leg of this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coglianese Photos)

All-Stakes Cross Country Pick 5 Features the Haskell, UN, Caress

The Grade 1 Haskell Stakes, its Grade 1 turf undercard United Nations, and a salty Grade 3 filly turf sprint finale at Saratoga headline this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5. This week’s Cross Country Pick 5 features stakes races coming from Monmouth Park, Saratoga, and Canada’s […]

Temple City Terror won last year's Keertana Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs. She goes for her fifth victory in the same event Saturday. It is the third race in this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coady Photography)

Cross Country Pick 5 Offers Several Deep Fields, Two Stakes

Two stakes races, one featuring a Breeders’ Cup board hitter, highlight Saturday’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5, which come to you from Belmont Park and Churchill Downs. This is the first of two Cross Country Pick 5s this weekend. The multi-race, multi-track wager resets Monday with stakes […]

Campanelle works out before her 4-year-old debut awaits in Saturday's Giant's Causeway Stakes at Keeneland. That is the opening leg to this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coady Photography)

Salty Kentucky Derby Prep, Ascot Winner Head Cross Country Pick 5

The last stop on the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail and a Royal Ascot winner making her season debut headline this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 wager. This week’s Cross Country Pick 5 features races from Keeneland and Aqueduct. Two of the five races are stakes events. That […]

Maryland-bred Jaxon Traveler returns to his home state as the favorite for the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes. The one-time 60/1 futures choice to win the Kentucky Derby found a different path to success. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Taking the Shorter Trail, Jaxon Traveler Puts the Odds in His Favor

Last November, Jaxon Traveler occupied the fast lane of Kentucky Derby prospects. At 60/1, he kept double-digit futures odds company with the likes of 45/1 Highly Motivated, 50/1 Hot Rod Charlie, 75/1 Midnight Bourbon, and 75/1 Keepmeinmind. Jaxon Traveler’s odds were lower than Hidden Stash and Super Stock (both 100/1). […]

The Kentucky Derby is only Rock Your World's second start on dirt. He is the fastest horse in the field based on speed figures. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Almost Back to Normalcy: Breaking Down the 2021 Kentucky Derby

Welcome to the 2021 Kentucky Derby. And welcome back to what a normal Kentucky Derby looks like. Almost. The crowds? Well, they’re back – about 40,000. That’s a quarter of what normally turns Churchill Downs into a sporting bacchanalia. But there’s people in the stands. We’ll take it. The horses? […]

Hidden Stash has a likely Kentucky Derby berth, courtesy of trainer Chad Brown selecting only one of his two Derby qualifiers to run at Churchill Downs. (Image: Coady Photography)

Brown’s Choice Puts Derby Dominoes Into Play

The Kentucky Derby dominoes continued to fall on Wednesday as we head toward the May 1 Run for the Roses, with Chad Brown saying he intends on running only one of his two Derby prospects — Highly Motivated or Crowded Trade — in the race. Brown told Blood-Horse that Highly […]

By the time Essential Quality finds the stretch, few of his pursuers are this close. He enters Saturday's Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland as the 3/5 morning-line favorite. (Image: Coady Photography)

This Year’s Blue Grass Stakes Come Loaded With Essential Quality

The biggest problem horseplayers have with the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes is not figuring out who will win. That essential question will likely be answered by 3/5 favorite Essential Quality. No. The biggest issue here is figuring out how to profit off a race where one horse is so […]

Highly Motivated set the 6 1/2-furlong Keeneland track record with this victory in the Nyquist Stakes. He opens his 3-year-old season Saturday in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. (Image: Coady Photography)

Highly Motivated Finds His Motivation Returning for Gotham

While the rest of the front-page Kentucky Derby futures favorites spent the winter winning races from California to Florida – and all points in between — Highly Motivated spent his winter hanging out in New York. This was Highly Motivated’s winter: working out here and there, watching stablemate Risk Taking […]

Highly Motivated makes his anticipated 2021 debut in Saturday's Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. (Image: Coglianese Photos)

Weekend Stakes: History at Santa Anita, Derby Preps on Both Coasts

This weekend’s stakes lineup features one of the most iconic races in American horse racing, the Santa Anita Handicap. But even that event, technically Santa Anita Park’s Saturday headliner, may get overshadowed on its own card by a Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep, the San Felipe Stakes. Featuring two of […]

Candy Man Rocket parlayed his Sam F. Davis Stakes victory into a spot on Churchill Downs' Kentucky Derby Future Wager's Pool 3. (Image: SV Photography)

New Entries, Same Favorites in Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 3

Nine new offerings entered the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 3 picture, but two familiar names continue holding court as the KDFW favorites. Essential Quality and Life Is Good opened as individual 8/1 morning-line favorites in the third of five KDFW pools. As expected, however, the overall favorite is “All […]

Keepmeinmind looked like a Kentucky Derby prospect with his last-to-first victory in Saturday's Kentucky Jockey Club. William Hill dropped his odds from 75/1 to 50/1. (Image: Churchill Downs)

Keepmeinmind Enters Thoughts of Kentucky Derby Future Bettors

Keepmeinmind entered the mind of bettors this past weekend when he won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs. That plunged his future odds in William Hill Nevada’s latest Kentucky Derby Futures Board to 50/1 from 75/1. On the futures front, however, it’s worth keeping in mind that […]

Will this be the year super sire Tapit finally fathers a Kentucky Derby winner? You can bet on this through the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager. (Image: Gainesway Farm)

Derby Sire Future Wager: You Can Bet on the Derby Winner’s Dad

You can make Kentucky Derby futures bets at William Hill Nevada and – starting Thursday and running through Sunday – Churchill Downs through its first Kentucky Derby Futures Wager pool. But now, you can also wager on Kentucky Derby sires through the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager. That’s right. You […]

Life Is Good won his debut by 9 1/2 lengths Sunday afternoon. He made enough of an impression to open at 12/1 on William Hill Nevada's Kentucky Derby Futures Board. (Image: Ernie Belmonte)

Life Is Good Certainly Proves it on William Hill Derby Futures Board

It took exactly 75-½ seconds for Life Is Good to live up to his name, throw his hoof into the Kentucky Derby futures picture, and become the latest horse rocketing up William Hill Nevada’s Kentucky Derby Futures Board. After the Into Mischief progeny destroyed an over-classed quartet of maidens by […]

Jockey Luis Saez and Essential Quality were exactly that at last week's Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Essential Quality is the prohibitive 10/1 favorite on William Hill's Kentucky Derby Futures Board. (Image: Michael Conroy/AP)

Essential Quality Surges to Top of William Hill Derby Futures Board

The fluidity of William Hill’s Kentucky Derby future odds six months from the 2021 Derby clearly illustrated itself before last Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Note, the key word here: “before.” Because, before undefeated 4/5 Juvenile favorite Jackie’s Warrior entered the Keeneland starting gate, he was no longer the darling of […]