Less than a week before Ellis Park Race Track’s most historic season is set to begin, the track announced that seven backstretch workers tested positive for COVID-19. Track officials announced their summer meet will begin as scheduled on Thursday, with limited fans in attendance. Of the seven Ellis Park backstretch […]
Cezanne’s potential as a Kentucky Derby contender will be further revealed on Thursday when the Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-old enters the Los Alamitos Race Course gate for his second career race. A $3.65 million purchase and one of the loudest buzz horses on the Kentucky Derby Trail, Cezanne is the 4/5 […]
Ellis Park will become the first Kentucky racetrack to allow spectators when the track opens Thursday for its summer meet. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s directive allows racetracks to admit spectators up to 50% capacity beginning Monday. The Henderson facility plans selling reserved seating to its Sky Theater, the second floor […]
Storm the Court’s 2020 season defines the term “sophomore slump,†which explains why you’re seeing the Champion 2-year-old in the starting gate for Saturday’s Grade 3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown. The consolation for Storm the Court? There are two. He gets back Flavien Prat, the West Coast’s top jockey, who […]
There could be another Pharoah in the Kentucky Derby starting gate. Café Pharoah, a son of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, captured the Group 3 Unicorn Stakes in Japan, securing enough points on Japan’s Road to the Kentucky Derby to earn a spot – should his connections claim it. […]
Monmouth Park joins the American racetrack opening parade next week, announcing it will open its track and in-house William Hill sports book Thursday, July 2. What sets Monmouth Park apart from its top-tier track brethren in this COVID-19 era is that the New Jersey track will allow fans inside. Under […]
The fact Sole Volante’s connections announced late Monday he will run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes is noteworthy on a couple of fronts. First, it’s a horse committing to the first leg of a revamped Triple Crown. This has become a novelty over the last three weeks, with defections […]
There was no reason to adjust your eyes, even in today’s pampered horseracing atmosphere where star horses don’t race more than once a month – if that. There were three Kentucky Derby hopefuls – Sole Volante, Ete Indien, and Shivaree — running a $55,000 allowance race on an otherwise ordinary […]
Right on the hoofprints of Maxfield’s injury and subsequent departure from the Kentucky Derby Trail, Louisiana Derby winner Wells Bayou suffered bone bruising that will keep him out of the Sept. 5 Derby. Currently third on the active Derby qualifying points ladder with 104, Wells Bayou breezed a half-mile in […]
Illustrating another example of the precarious nature of Thoroughbred horse racing, Kentucky Derby contender Maxfield injured his front right leg during a routine workout on Wednesday. He will miss the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby after suffering a condylar fracture in his leg. If this sounds eerily familiar, it should. This […]
The Santa Anita Derby did what the West Coast’s premier Kentucky Derby prep always does – put another quality front-runner in the front row of Derby hopefuls for the Sept. 5 Run for the Roses. At the same time, it provided a good time to see where the top 3-year-olds […]
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s vaunted Big Three Kentucky Derby contenders is now down to a Big One with the news that Charlatan will miss the Kentucky Derby with an ankle injury. Baffert told Paulick Report Publisher Ray Paulick the undefeated Speighstown progeny suffered “a filling in a front […]
Even in a year where the COVID-19 pandemic pushed matters from April to June, Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby storylines begin where they usually do – in Bob Baffert’s Santa Anita Park barn. After all, where else to begin than the barn that produced nine previous Santa Anita Derby […]
He may be the biggest sleeper of all the serious Kentucky Derby favorites, the one currently sailing under most Derby list radars. But you lose track of Honor A.P. at your own peril, which is why he’s in peril of winning Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby. It’s some dangerously fast company […]
Illustrating the fragile nature of today’s Thoroughbred horses, Kentucky Derby favorite Nadal broke a bone in his left front leg during a Thursday morning workout. His owner, George Bolton, said Nadal has been immediately retired. One of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s standout 3-year-olds, Nadal worked a half-mile at […]
It’s the fourth Saturday in May, which brings us Churchill Downs’ headline race for 3-year-olds this spring. You can hear the dulcet tones of “My Old Kentucky Home†as the 10 horses enter the gate for the Matt Winn Stakes. No, that’s not a typo or the result of a […]
Sole Volante is off to the Belmont Stakes. His stablemate, Ete Indien, heads to the Haskell Stakes. And Honor A.P. stays home for the Santa Anita Derby. These three Kentucky Derby contenders illustrate how many different paths have emerged on the Derby Trail during the COVID-19 era. Even in a […]
The expectations surrounding Maxfield on his 3-year-old debut at Saturday’s Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs can be viewed through the prism of two other horses who recently returned from extended time off. The first: Bob Baffert’s Tale of the Union, who returned to the starting gate at […]
The Belmont Stakes already has Bob Baffert’s powerful unbeaten duo of Charlatan and Nadal. It has Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law. But it won’t have King Guillermo. Juan Carlos Avila, King Guillermo’s trainer, tweeted the Tampa Bay Derby winner won’t run the June 20, 1 1/8-mile Belmont Stakes. Instead, […]
The Kentucky Derby Trail now has a visible path forward after Churchill Downs released a preliminary list of races offering Derby qualifying points, pending host track approval. One of the most interesting elements of the preliminary Derby Trail concerns the other two legs of the Triple Crown – the Preakness […]
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