Tag: White Abarrio

Taiba's biggest victory in his three-race career came in April's Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. The Bob Baffert charge shipped east as the morning line favorite for the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park Saturday. (Image: Benoit Photo)

The Haskell Buzz Follows Baffert’s Taiba, Brown’s Jack Christopher

The buzz horse in Saturday’s Grade 1 Haskell Stakes is definitely Jack Christopher. The buzz trainer – as he usually is in high-profile 3-year-old races – is Bob Baffert who brings in 7/5 morning line favorite Taiba. So when the starting buzzer goes off in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, who’s […]

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 […]

UAE Oaks and 1,000 Guineas winner Shahama seeks to return to the winner's circle after a sixth in the Kentucky Oaks. She is one of the fillies to watch in the Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

Cross Country Pick 5 Takes an All-Stakes Trip to Four Tracks

This week’s Cross Country Pick 5 truly makes the East Coast and Midwest rounds, hitting four tracks with an all-stakes sequence culminating in a wide-open Ohio Derby. Along with that second of two races from JACK Thistledown, this week’s Cross Country Pick 5 encompasses races from Belmont Park, Monmouth Park […]

Tawny Port, seen here working out two days before he finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby is the 3/1 morning line favorite for Saturday's Grade 3 Ohio Derby at JACK Thistledown. (Image: Coady Photography)

Ohio Derby Provides Derby Disappointments Redemption Opportunity

The Grade 3 Ohio Derby takes its turn in the racing spotlight at an ideal time, fitting in after the Triple Crown and before the lucrative Del Mar and Saratoga meets begin in mid-July. And it does so carrying three Kentucky Derby veterans making their first starts since that May […]

Epicenter did everything right except win Steve Asmussen his first Kentucky Derby. The 4.10/1 favorite adn Derby runner up is questionable for the Preakness Stakes. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Derby Aftermath: Stunned Asmussen, Preakness Probables

Still trying to process how his Kentucky Derby futility streak hit 24 races, trainer Steve Asmussen was non-committal on whether Derby runner up Epicenter would run the May 21 Preakness Stakes. The two-time Preakness winner was very committal on his level of disbelief at what transpired 50 yards from his […]

Taiba is attempting to be only the third horse to win the Kentucky Derby without running as a 2-year-old. Columnist and morning line author Jon White likes his chances. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Racing Veteran White Sees Plenty of Gray in this Kentucky Derby

Jon White wants you to know this Kentucky Derby prognostication stuff can get rather tricky. He once picked Point Given to win the 2001 Derby because he simply was the best horse in the field. Point Given picked the first Saturday in May that year to run the worst race […]

(Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Breaking Down the 2022 Kentucky Derby: Chaos Theory Reigns

Welcome to Kentucky Derby 148, a.k.a. The Chaos Derby. And we’re not talking about the usual infield escapades that happen as the Derby returns to it’s pre-pandemic crowds north of 150,000. Unpredictability? Depth? A Derby where surprises almost wouldn’t be surprising? This edition of America’s most popular race has it […]

Barbados native Saffie Joseph Jr. is a third-generation horseman. He ended Todd Pletcher's 18-year Gulfstream Park Championship Meet training title run this year with 58 wins. (Image: Sarah Andrew)

Saffie Joseph Jr. Snaps Pletcher’s String, Wins Gulfstream Training Title

The last time Todd Pletcher didn’t win a Gulfstream Park Championship Meet title, Saffie Joseph Jr. wasn’t old enough to drink. He was barely old enough to vote. But one day after Joseph sent White Abarrio to the Grade 1 Florida Derby title, the 35-year-old trainer captured the Gulfstream Championship […]

Cyberknife captured the Arkansas Derby Saturday, vaulting him into the Kentucky Derby. (Image: Coady Photography)

Kentucky Derby Prep Stretch Run: Who’s Rising, Who’s Falling

Saturday’s penultimate wave of Kentucky Derby prep races brought four horses into the Derby field and taught us plenty about several others who either evolved into Derby contenders or devolved into Derby pretenders. There was White Abarrio, winning the Florida Derby in stellar fashion to punch his ticket to the […]

Simplification rolled past his rivals in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth last month. He is the 5/2 morning line favorite for Saturday's Grade 1 Florida Derby. (Image: Coglianese Photos/Ryan Thompson)

Florida Derby: The Springboard to Kentucky Derby Glory

Why the Florida Derby is a marquee race on the Kentucky Derby trail, Part the First: Six horses this century graduated from the Grade 1 flagship race at Gulfstream Park to the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle. The six: Monarchos (2001), Barbaro (2006), Big Brown (2008), Orb (2013), Nyquist (2016) and […]

White Abarrio went from closing at 171/1 in the second Kentucky Derby Future Wager to opening at 8/1 in the third pool. That came as a result of this 4 1/2-length victory in last weekend's Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. (Image: Coglianese Photo)

White Abarrio Goes from Long Shot to KDFW Individual Co-Favorite

The third of five pools for the Kentucky Derby Future Wager (KDFW) opens Friday at noon ET with the familiar “All Other 3-Year-Olds” – a.k.a. “the field” – as the 5/2 morning-line favorite. But it opened with a new co-individual favorite sharing that status with a familiar favorite. That newcomer […]

Make It Big held off Osbourne in deep stretch of Friday's Springboard Mile at Remington Park. The half-length victory put the Saffie Joseph Jr. colt on this winter's Kentucky Derby trail in his native Florida. (Image; Dustin Orona Photography/Remington Park)

Make It Big Gives Trainer Joseph Kentucky Derby Trail Options

Make It Big did exactly that in Friday’s Springboard Mile at Remington Park, winning the Kentucky Derby prep by a half-length as the 6/5 favorite. More importantly, Make It Big gave trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. a new project for the new year: figuring out what’s next for his colt on […]