fantasy stable: week 18.5 update

May 30, 2014May 30, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

The final claiming date has come and gone, and it was the toughest claim of all to plan. I had $295 of my $500 worth of funny money, more than any other stable, and I needed to figure out how to maximize it in light of the four points races remaining: the Belmont Stakes, the Acorn Stakes, the Woody Stephens, and the Easy Goer. Last month was a bit easier since the Derby Trial draw was out. I could handicap the Derby trial, and try to grab a free horse with a chance. That was exactly what I did, and I was handsomely rewarded when Embellishing Bob won. On top of that, the Derby field was pretty well set, so I knew who to focus on there.

However, this time around, the only race of the four with a particularly set field was the Belmont. A few Belmont horses were open for claiming: contender Wicked Strong, and longshots Matterhorn and Matuszak. We had nominations out for the Acorn, Woody Stephens, and Easy Goer, but I wasn’t privy to much good scuttlebutt about who was going to run in those. So, I had to make my best guesses.

fantasy stable: week 18 update

May 26, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

This has been another fairly slow week for my fantasy stable in the Derbyologist Triple Crown fantasy league. We’re making it down the home stretch, though — the final claiming day is this Thursday, and the final points races (the Belmont Stakes, the Acorn Stakes, the Woody Stephens, and the Easy Goer) all unfold on June 7th. Nominations for the three-year-old Belmont undercard races (Acorn, Woody Stephens, and Easy Goer) came out today, and most of my stable appeared in at least one of those nominations lists. With the next claim coming up this week, though, I am hoping they proceed from “nominated” to something more definite shortly. Even a definite “no” would be useful, since I still have a good amount of claiming budget in order to try for some horses who are running in the big Belmont races and not yet owned by any of my competitors.

Let’s see how my stable is doing!

fantasy stable: week 17 update

May 21, 2014May 26, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

This past week was a huge one for my stable in the Derbyologist Triple Crown fantasy horse racing league. Three of my horses raced for points: Stopchargingmaria was in the Black-Eyed Susan, and both Ride On Curlin and General a Rod ran the Preakness. All three of them ran big, and two of the three of them brought my stable points. Alas, that only puts my stable back to about mid-pack after a dreadful mid-season stretch, but there’s still a chance I can hit the board if I have some horses run big Belmont weekend.

Without further ado, let’s see how my horses are doing!

fantasy stable: week 16 update

May 12, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

This past week was a relatively quiet one for my stable in the Derbyologist Triple Crown fantasy league. After so many of my horses raced Derby weekend, none of them hit the track this week. However, this weekend will be a big one, with not one but two of my colts headed to the Preakness Stakes, and one of my fillies resurfacing in the Black-Eyed Susan on Friday.

Without further ado, let’s see what the horses of Iron Bard are up to:

fantasy stable: week 15 update

May 6, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

This was a huge week for my stable in the Derbyologist Triple Crown fantasy league, in that there were five of my horses running. This was a less-than-huge week for my fantasy stable, in that no one from my stable hit the board, and one of my fearsome fivesome didn’t even start her race — though she provided us with the scariest moment of the weekend.

With that, let’s see how it all unfolded.

Oaks Day 2014!

May 2, 2014May 5, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

Today is Kentucky Oaks day, and there are four races on the Churchill Downs card that are contest races for the Danonymous Racing contest this weekend. Three of them are for three-year-old fillies, with the other being the Alysheba, a short dirt route for older horses, featuring Will Take Charge.

This won’t be the only stakes preview this weekend; the Derby, and a plethora of other races Derby Day, are forthcoming. However, there’s a lot of great racing action today, so let’s jump in!

fantasy stable: week 14 (Derby week!) update

April 30, 2014May 5, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

It’s finally here: Derby week! In a sense, the entire Derbyologist Triple Crown fantasy league has been building up to this season. There have been tons of points races over the last few months, but the biggest ones are still to come. The horses in my stable have changed a bit since my last update, though they’re ready to hit the ground running: one of my new horses has already won a race, and two more are in the starting gate for the Kentucky Oaks this Friday.

I am still stressing out about how I ordered Please Explain, Stopchargingmaria, and Conquest Titan in my drops, which ended up meaning something because I only ended up getting three of my five claims. I kept Stopchargingmaria and Conquest Titan, since I am so leery of Please Explain after the medication violation and then the poor run in the Fantasy that I thought Stopchargingmaria and Conquest Titan were less of a risk should either point to a minor race for the league. I knew Please Explain was working at Churchill Downs. However, I misunderstood how the points system worked, and thought points were required to enter a horse in the Derby or Oaks. However, that isn’t the case: they’re preferred. If not enough horses with points enter the race, anyone can. If I had understood that, I’d have interpreted Please Explain’s Churchill works for what they ended up being: crumbs leading toward a surprise entry in the Kentucky Oaks.

For Please Explain’s sake, I’m still worried about this move. I hope whatever was hurting her, whatever led to her being medicated, has been healed. I hope she runs well, and strikes a long-shot blow for the awesomeness of Curlin babies. For my fantasy stable’s stake, I feel really dumb for not understanding the points rule correctly, and may have ranked differently had I understood the rule. That said, I feel I made the best ranking decision I could have at the time, given my assessment of the situation.

With that out of the way, let’s check in on my stable:

fantasy stable: week 13.5 update

April 27, 2014May 5, 2014 rowan wardLeave a comment

We had a claiming day this Thursday, and I had to get busy, since so many of my horses were off the Derby or Oaks trails. I had Ride On Curlin and General a Rod who are in the Derby starting gate, and She’s a Tiger pointing toward the Eight Belles, but that was it as far as horses of mine who were clearly pointing toward races that could advance my standing. I had to get my hands on at least a few horses who would be in some more points races, since my current point total in the league is nothing if not middling. Fortunately, I had the most money left out of anyone: $468 out of the $500 in Monopoly money that we got at the beginning of the season for claims.

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