Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Curlin Babies, where we celebrate the twelve most memorable races from Curlin’s progeny throughout 2018. Through all the hundreds of races in which they ran this year, these are the ones to which my mind keeps wandering back. #12: Timeless Curls Marks Herself a Rising Star #11: Secret Passage Comes Into His Own In the fall of 2015, I got... Continue Reading →
Saturday Stakes Action at Belmont and Arlington!
Over at Picks and Ponderings, I look at stakes action both here and out east! Saturday's card at Arlington features a pair of turf stakes, the Mike Spellman Memorial and the Black Tie Affair Handicap. Both drew small yet classy fields, but the Illinois turf route division is still such a good group that both... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2018 Belmont Gold Cup Preview and Belmont Thursday-Friday Stakes Selections
Though the top racing story leading into the weekend is Justify's bid for a Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival ensures that it is not the only one worth following. With top-class stakes races across all ages and divisions, the weekend has established itself as American racing's top midyear showcase, and the action begins... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2017 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Preview
With five weeks until the Breeders' Cup, many of the marquee prospects for our sport's biggest weekend have penciled in their final prep races for this weekend. Thanks to that, Saturday's cards at both Belmont and Santa Anita are chock full of graded stakes. This piece features a full preview of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic... Continue Reading →
another for the Keen Ice highlight reel
Keen Ice (Medomak, by Awesome Again) hasn't been the most consistent horse in his four seasons on the racetrack, but the son of Curlin has built a track record of blowing my mind once a year. In 2014, when he was two, that came in the form of an impossible-looking maiden victory. The next year,... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2017 Belmont Stakes Point/Counterpoint
We've reached my favourite leg of the Triple Crown: the Belmont Stakes. Perhaps the most consistent part of this year's Triple Crown season has been Classic Empire's path being so star-crossed. Unfortunately, he is not one of the entrants into this year's Belmont, as he came up with a foot abscess this morning. However, twelve... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2017 Belmont Gold Cup Preview
Friday's card at Belmont features the fourth edition one of my favourite races of the year: the Belmont Gold Cup (G3). It's graded for the first time this year, and it drew a deep field of 13: seven Americans, and six international horses. It's exciting to see how far this race has come in just... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2017 Elusive Quality Stakes Preview
Belmont gets underway this weekend, and Saturday's card finds its anchor in the Elusive Quality Stakes. The race is one few American tracks can hold: a one-turn, seven-furlong grass race. Belmont's sweeping course offers that option, and a field of seven (plus two main-track only entries, though rain is unlikely) have entered to contest the... Continue Reading →
to Lady Eli
a bold display of power, strength, and grace a difficult debut, she found the wire ears up, and proud peace beaming from her face she stronger grew, her deeds pronounced the case for champion's laurels — in each start did transpire a bold display of power, strength, and grace our nation's fastest could not keep... Continue Reading →
a day in verse
Today is the first of two major weekends for final Breeders' Cup preps. It is also the first weekend since early March that there has not been racing action in Chicago, so it gives me some time to focus on just the out of town preps. It also gives me some time to play with... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: 2016 Rodeo Drive Stakes Preview
This weekend there may not be any racing in Chicago, but Breeders' Cup preps are getting serious. Over at Picks and Ponderings, I preview the weekend's action. I have an in-depth preview of the Rodeo Drive Stakes (GI), and will also have selections for all of the stakes action at both Santa Anita and Belmont... Continue Reading →
another excellent week for Curlin babies!
Connect (Bullville Belle, by Holy Bull) carried the banner for Curlin Babies Saturday, winning a loaded edition of the Pennsylvania Derby (GII). Already a stakes winner after winning the Curlin at Saratoga, he rebounded from a sixth-place finish in the Travers Stakes (GI). He tracked inside and midpack through much of the race, was finally... Continue Reading →
handicapping contest this Saturday for Galloping Out!
Million Preview Day is this Saturday at Arlington...and Danonymous Racing and I are doing a contest! The contest will benefit Galloping Out, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps rehabilitate, retrain, and rehome thoroughbreds who are retiring from Chicago-area racetracks. Contest races will be posted once the weekend's races are drawn. But, they will definitely include all... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: Met Mile Preview
Yesterday Picks and Ponderings attacked the Belmont in point/counterpoint fashion...but given Belmont's move to the big race day model, it is nowhere near the only major race on the day's card. In my latest piece for Picks and Ponderings, I take a look at the Met Mile. The race drew a huge and classy field...but... Continue Reading →
Picks and Ponderings: Belmont Stakes Preview
It's almost here -- my favourite race of the Triple Crown, the Test of the Champion, the Belmont Stakes. Over at Picks and Ponderings, Paul Mazur and I go point-counterpoint on the entire field of thirteen. The horse in the field who has my #CurlinBabies heart is of course Exaggerator. It would be so much... Continue Reading →
