Jumps: Handicapping Gold Cup, Winterthur
Betting? There’s betting? There’s betting. In a rarity for American jump racing, you can put your money down for real at the Virginia Gold Cup meeting Saturday at Great Meadow.
Grinding Speed looks to jump back on track
While the rest of Thoroughbred racing aims its attention at Churchill Downs Saturday, the steeplechase set heads to Virginia for another rite of the first Saturday in May – the Virginia Gold Cup at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains.
Derby Diary: Time for the main event
Churchill Downs, Derby week. Even before the crowds fill every spare inch of the grandstand, the infield, and the paddock Derby magic is already there. Perhaps it is just from the excitement of the race being so near at hand. I had not yet experienced Churchill in Derby week until the actual day itself, and it was a bit of a revelation to feel this magic already.
Opportunity of a lifetime
Stuart S. Janney III needed convincing at one point in his life whether getting involved in Thoroughbred racing was the right thing to do. He got some advice from one of racing’s most successful and respected individuals who just happened to be his uncle, Ogden Phipps, and got involved.
Kevin Krigger…In his own words
By now you know the story, jockey Kevin Krigger will try to become the first black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby since Jimmy Winkfield in 1902. The 29-year-old from St. Croix, the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, rides Goldencents for trainer Doug O’Neill. The horse and jockey have won four races, including the Santa Anita Derby in their most recent outing.
Riding the Rail
He’s the first rider you see on the track Thursday morning, backing up, chinstrap flapping, double-jointed knees and elbows dancing to the rhythm of the bay horse in a green and blue saddle towel. Three Derbies in the bank. Hall of Fame plaque at the engraver. Calvin Borel is living the American dream.
Beholder of the Kentucky Oaks
Garrett Gomez was not impressed. The Eclipse Award-winning jockey rode a 21-1 shot for trainer Richard Mandella in a maiden sprint at Hollywood Park in June. She finished fourth, beaten nearly 9 lengths. Three weeks later, Gomez was impressed, when Beholder took over.
No ‘Secret’ about these Derby weekend plans
Charles Cella remembers playing a little hookie from Washington and Lee University in Virginia to make his first trip to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby in the 1950s. He’s made the trip many times since and will make it again this weekend, to not only take in America’s great race but also to watch his Cyber Secret run in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks undercard.
Tom & Jerry
First there was Gene Schmidt in 1940. Then the great Chic Anderson. Mike Battaglia came next for a nearly 20-year stint at the top of Churchill Downs. Kurt Becker took the helm for two years before the affable and talented Luke Kruytbosch made it his own for nearly a decade. In 2009, Mark Johnson became the sixth track announcer in Churchill Downs history, the native of Lincolnshire, England stepped into a big role, announcing his first Kentucky Derby.
A very unlikely Triple Crown streak
Three horses swept the Triple Crown in the 1970s, but 34 years now have passed since Affirmed pulled off the feat in 1978. Fans wonder every year if they’ll again see another Triple Crown winner.
