Longshot Giant Finish looks for one in Derby
The race to win the Kentucky Derby won’t be decided until Saturday evening, but the contest for best face is over. Giant Finish wins, by a giant margin. OK, Will Take Charge is in the mix, but…
Time for the game face
Robbie Medina knows for absolute certain he’ll be pumped up as he goes through his normal routine Saturday. Of course Saturday is not a normal day and Medina is no ordinary guy in a run-of-the-mill role.
Vyjack makes Derby a reality for owner
Twenty owners will watch their horses run in the Kentucky Derby Saturday. Just one will know what it feels like to win. And that’s the beauty of the country’s most important Thoroughbred race.
Saratoga 150 celebration at the ready
It’s Kentucky Derby week, but it’s another even older tradition that folks in Saratoga Springs and the surrounding communities are ready to celebrate.
Professor Maxwell aces Maryland Hunt Cup
The key to the Maryland Hunt Cup came early Saturday, and became truly evident only in hindsight.
Preakness probably benefits from Saturday stakes results
Abstraction continued to show he’s a colt on the rise, Forty Tales bounced back from a disappointing race, and the Preakness Stakes looks like it gained a contender or two from Saturday’s stakes at Pimlico Race Course and Churchill Downs.
Maryland Hunt Cup: Questions abound in final hours
In 24 hours we’ll know if. . .Guts For Garters is as good as he looks, Twill Do can join the immortals as a three-time winner, 15 horses can put on a show worthy of the overflow entry box, Battle Op can get over the hump, experience counts for Bon Caddo, Professor Maxwell was just unlucky last year.
Tesio may be weekend’s more ideal classic prep
The Derby Trial Stakes-with its Derby points and late-evening post as part of the opening Downs After Dark card at Churchill Downs-gets most of the attention this weekend, but five hours earlier and roughly 600 miles away in Baltimore is perhaps the more realistic classic prep of the weekend.
Jumps: Handicapping Another Triple Header
Another three-meet Saturday as the jumpers disperse to Queen’s Cup in North Carolina, Foxfield in Virginia and the Maryland Hunt Cup, in you guessed it, Maryland. The best novices clash at Queen’s Cup, the best 4-mile timber horses clash in the Hunt Cup and a slew of hurdlers and maiden timber horses clash at Foxfield. Great racing all around.
Hall Call: McDynamo, Tuscalee joins greats
No colic, no foot abscess, no cough, no high nail from a shoeing, no flat tire on the van. And no defeats. For seven consecutive years, McDynamo went to American steeplechasing’s richest race meet – the Far Hills Races in New Jersey – and delivered.
