Tag: Risk Taking

Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Racetrack and the Saudi Cup open this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia/Neville Hopwood)

Saudi Cup Opens This Week’s International Cross Country Pick 5

- 3 min read

The $20 million Saudi Cup, a.k.a. the world’s richest race, opens this week’s opportunity for horseplayers to get rich via the New York Racing Association’s Cross Country Pick 5. This week’s five-race sequence takes on a cross-global flavor. It features races from the home of the Saudi Cup — King Abdulaziz Racetrack […]

Essential Quality hasn't raced since beating Hot Rod Charlie in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. He is the prohibitive favorite to win his fourth graded stakes race of 2021: the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga. (Image: Adam Coglianese/NYRA)

Essential Quality Looks Like a Real Jim Dandy Favorite Here

- 4 min read

Proving not all graded stakes winners are viewed equally, Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga features five graded stakes winners in the six-horse field. None of them are viewed through the prism of expectations as Essential Quality. The Belmont Stakes champion comes in as the 1/2 favorite in the […]

It's been a wild week for Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness Stakes morning-line favorite Medina Spirit. But the colt has no idea what controversy is. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

It’s Been A Spirited Week: Breaking Down the 2021 Preakness Stakes

- 9 min read

Before we break down the field for the second jewel of the Triple Crown, we’ll dispense with the news everyone waited for concerning Saturday’s 146th Preakness Stakes from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Both Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit and Concert Tour passed their three pre-race drug tests, meaning they […]

Risk Taking, seen here capturing the Withers Stakes two starts ago, joins the Preakness Stakes field. (Image: Joe Labozzetta)

Brown Takes a Calculated Risk Sending Risk Taking to the Preakness

- 2 min read

Calling an audible with an aptly named horse, trainer Chad Brown said Risk Taking will run in the Preakness Stakes instead of the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes – his original destination. Risk Taking was the morning-line favorite for the Peter Pan, a one-turn, 1 1/8-mile race on Saturday at […]

Kendrick Carmouche and Bourbonic pulled off the biggest upset on the Kentucky Derby Trail, capturing Saturday's Wood Memorial at 72/1. (Image: NYRA)

This Bourbonic Plague Caught the Biggest Upset in Wood Memorial History

- 3 min read

It had to be a typo that Todd Pletcher’s Bourbonic entered the Wood Memorial starting gate at 72/1. Surely, the trainer with the most Kentucky Derby starters in history couldn’t have a moon shot like this in a race he’s won five times. It was no typo. Bourbonic left the […]

Weyburn (inside) held off a surging Crowded Trade to win the Grade 3 Gotham in February. The two tangle again in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Saturday at Aqueduct. (Image: Sarah Andrew)

Wood Memorial Replaces Recent Derby History With Wide-Open Plot

- 5 min read

Let’s dispense with the Wood Memorial history out of the gate. There are 13 Triple Crown winners, and this Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep claims four of them: Gallant Fox, Count Fleet, Seattle Slew, and Secretariat. Eleven horses pulled off the Wood Memorial/Kentucky Derby double. You’ve probably heard of a […]

After Jose Ortiz pointed the way to a stretch victory in the Fountain of Youth, Greatest Honour reached his lowest Kentucky Derby odds mark to date. He's 7/1 at Circa Sports, 5/1 at William Hill Nevada. (Image: Lauren King/Gulfstream Park)

Derby Futures: Just When You Thought the Favorites Can’t Go Lower

- 4 min read

As the calendar turns to March – a mere two months out from the Kentucky Derby – Circa Sports and William Hill Nevada pared 53 horses from their Derby futures boards. There are 150 horses remaining. The value on many of the favorites? The books sliced that away long ago. […]

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

- 3 min read

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 […]

Jockey Dylan Davis had plenty of high-fives to deliver after delivering a 6 3/4-length victory aboard Capo Kane in the Jerome. Davis and Capo Kane are the 3/1 second-favorite in Saturday's Withers Stakes at Aqueduct. (Image: Janet Garaguso/NYRA)

The Withers: A Derby Prep Running on History

- 4 min read

The Withers predates the Kentucky Derby by one year, a testament to its one-time status as one of the country’s prestigious spring races. This race once held court just below the Triple Crown races in terms of status and prestige. Man o’ War? Won the 1920 Withers. Native Dancer? Your […]