Tag: Mind Control

Mind Control's first of two wins last year came in the Nerud Stakes at Belmont Park. He's expected to be one of the contenders in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park. That's the final race in this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher)

Monmouth Park Stakes its Claim in This Week’s Cross Country Pick 5

- 3 min read

Monmouth Park joins the New York Racing Association’s weekly Cross Country Pick 5 this week, spotlighting a contentious Grade 3 race featuring Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie. That would be the Salvator Mile, one of three Monmouth Park races from Haskell Stakes Preview Day on the five-race wager. Two […]

Early Voting is one of three unbeaten horses competing for guaranteed Kentucky Derby berths in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. (Image: Coglianese Photo/Chelsea Durand)

Cross Country Pick 5 Goes High Stakes With Derby, Oaks Preps

- 3 min read

One of the strongest New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 offerings of the year awaits horseplayers this week. It presents an all-graded stakes sequence featuring two Grade 1s, two Grade 2s, and a strong Grade 3. And Kentucky Derby trail watchers, this wager is for you. Two of […]

Following Sea and Joel Rosario wired the field in Saturday's Grade 2 Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park. This victory gives trainer Todd Pletcher options on which Breeders' Cup race the 3-year-old will run. (Image: NYRA Photo)

Following Sea’s Vosburgh Victory Gives Pletcher Enviable Options

- 3 min read

Even as he reveled in Following Sea’s gate-to-wire victory in Saturday’s six-furlong Grade 2 Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park, trainer Todd Pletcher said he planned lengthier travels for his 3-year-old. “He’s a very talented horse and trains very impressively. He’s also galloped out in a fashion that would indicate he […]

Essential Quality nipped Keepmeinmind to win last month's Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga. The two tangle again in Saturday's Travers Stakes, one of six Grade 1s on Saratoga's Saturday card. (Image: Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo)

Saturday at Saratoga: One of Racing’s Biggest Days of 2021

- 3 min read

The names of those racing on Saturday’s Travers Day at Saratoga sound like a Thoroughbred all-star team: Essential Quality, Gamine, Letruska, Tribhuvan, Jackie’s Warrior, Life Is Good, Whitmore, Swiss Skydiver. All of them – and others you may have heard of – are set to run in one of Saratoga’s […]

Aunt Pearl and Florent Geroux went gate-to-wire in last fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She is the likely favorite in the Grade 2 Edgewood on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. (Image: Coady Photography)

Don’t Overlook These Kentucky Oaks, Kentucky Derby Undercards

- 5 min read

The Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby undercards offer turf stars Colonel Liam and Smooth Like Strait. They offer filly stars Gamine, Shedaresthedevil, Sanenus, Aunt Pearl, and Envoutante. They also offer Maxfield, Roadster, and Max Player. And they offer one-time Derby hopefuls Jackie’s Warrior, Prevalence, and Gretzky the Great. It’s easy […]

Mind Control owns seven victories and more than $1 million in career earnings. He's also the only one of the five Carter Handicap entries with a Grade 1 victory. (Image: Susie Raisher)

The Carter Handicap Knows Its Place on the Wood Memorial Undercard

- 3 min read

The Carter Handicap is that rare Grade 1 race sitting on an undercard featuring no other Grade 1s. But there it sits, the sixth race on Aqueduct’s Saturday card, almost an afterthought on Wood Memorial Day at the Big A. The $300,000, seven-furlong Carter, however, holds court as the first […]

Performer is 5-for-6 lifetime, including his lone graded stakes victory last year in the Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct. He is the 7/5 morning line favorite to win the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. (Image: Coglianese Photo)

Performer, King Guillermo, Firenze Fire Make for a Smooth Cigar Mile

- 4 min read

King Guillermo is back for the Cigar Mile, seven months after he last entered a starting gate. You’ve also got sprinting standout Firenze Fire stretching out to a mile. And your Cigar Mile favorite – Performer – makes only his second start in 11-½ months. When it comes to betting […]

Whitmore, seen here winning his fourth consecutive Hot Springs Stakes, goes for his second Forego Stakes title in three years Saturday. (Image: Coady Photography)

Whitmore Returns to Take On High-Grade Field in Forego Stakes

- 4 min read

Do you go with the crafty veteran, Whitmore, he of the 14 wins in 35 races? Or do you forego that lukewarm favorite in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes and bet on Funny Guy? What about foregoing Funny Guy and playing betting brain games with Mind Control or Complexity? The […]