<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>   It was a sensational day for female jockeys on May 11 at Fort Erie as the ladies won six of eight [...]

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I love going over the charts from important races. The Kentucky Derby had a 20-horse field and the win by Super Saver and jockey Calvin Borel made for a great story.  But 20 horses, running in the mud in front of more than 150,000 often presents some challenges for the three year-olds and May 1st [...]

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Who will win the Kentucky Derby?  I haven’t got a clue. Every year, the lead-up to the Run for the Roses tends to produce a standout,  a brilliant colt heads and shoulders above the rest of the thousands of three year-olds running in the United States and Canada.  Big Brown, Street Sense, Barbaro, Smarty Jones, [...]

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Even without Rachel Alexandra, they attracted more than 44,000 to Oaklawn on Friday to see Zenyatta win the $490,000 Apple Blossom Stakes.  It might have been the easiest of Zenyatta’s wins, but when the 6 year-old mare hit the wire first by a  widening four lengths, she tied Cigar and Citation with 16 straight wins [...]

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It’s hard enough to win at the races. You change your mind at the last minute and your first pick wins at 10-1. You get nosed out for a huge tri. Your jockey goes eight horses wide and gets beat by a head. You win by five and get dq-ed. You explode in jubilation when [...]

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Woodbine’s Glenn Crouter calls ( about once a week in March) to remind us that Opening Day of the thoroughbred meet at Woodbine is the surest sign that spring has arrived – certainly it’s a far more reliable barometer than the spring equinox! Apparently God is a horse-player. According to forecasts, there could be a [...]

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The 2010 Thoroughbred racing meet starts next Friday at Woodbine and that’s usually good enough to bring all the bettors out of hibernation ( they certainly have been sleepy at the standardbred races this winter, considering the alarming drop in mutuel handle). But even the really smart guys at Woodbine could not have thought of [...]

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I admit it is boring to hear (or read about) a guy bragging of his racetrack scores, but I had two very nice moments on the simulcast gambling last weekend that served to reinforce my theory that the daily double is the best possible legal bet in this country. On Friday, working my cash through [...]

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  The most disappointed person on the planet when Rachel Alexandra was beaten at the Fair Grounds Saturday had to be Oaklawn Park General Manager Eric Jackson. After the race, Rachel’s owner, Jess Jackson announced that the 2009 Horse of the Year is not in top shape and won’t be taking on Zenyatta in the [...]

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You might think in the middle of winter, it would be hard to come up with 24 pages of material for a horse racing paper and you’d be wrong. In this issue, we have full coverage of both the O’Brien Awards for harness racing and the Sovereign Awards for the thoroughbreds. Down The Stretch had [...]

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