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The major Kentucky Derby by Yum! Brands preps are finished, but there's still some good 3-year-old racing out there. Let's take a look at the Grade III Coolmore Lexington Stakes and the Grade III Illinois Derby.
Thursday, April 18, 2013This year's edition of the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes may be wide open, so let's have fun with it and try to bring home a winner.
Thursday, April 11, 2013If you're leaning in favor of any particular horse for the Kentucky Derby, maybe you'd like to know what Johnny Avello thinks about its odds to win the Triple Crown.
Tuesday, April 09, 2013Verrazano could lose the grade I Wood Memorial, and so could Vyjack, but it would be a first for either one of them.
Thursday, April 04, 2013It's hard to believe that we're already so far down the Kentucky Derby Trail that the final prep for the Grade I Wood Memorial is on Saturday.
Thursday, February 28, 2013One week into the Kentucky Derby Championship Series, we run down the schedules of the major contenders, and more.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013Belmont Stakes charts since the last Triple Crown was won show that it is almost imperative to be in the top three with a quarter-mile left in the race -- and to be on the lead at the furlong marker.
Friday, June 01, 2012Or, Who'll Get to the Eighth Pole First; Who Can Run on An Off Track?
Tuesday, May 01, 2012Chart of contenders for the May 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), ranked by earnings in graded stakes that are used to determine 20-horse starting field.
Monday, April 23, 2012Let's get right to it and start this analysis with Morgan's Guerilla. He's breaking from post 1.
Thursday, April 19, 2012Bodemeister jumped into the Top 20 in a big way with a 9 1/2-length win of the grade II Arkansas Derby, catapulting him to number 11.
Sunday, April 15, 2012I think either Hansen or Dullahan will win the Grade I Toyota Blue Grass, but how will the track be playing on Saturday?
Thursday, April 12, 2012After Saturday's graded stakes, Rousing Sermon is number 20 on the Kentucky Derby graded stakes earnings list with $270,000. He's ahead of Mark Valeski, El Padrino, Reveron and a host of others.
Monday, April 09, 2012The Grade I Wood Memorial is worth taking a risk with a moderate longshot, but things have to set up right for him.
Thursday, April 05, 2012It's possible Todd Pletcher will have just one Kentucky Derby horse, and the name of that horse is Our Entourage.
Thursday, April 05, 2012Tuesday in a national conference call, trainer Todd Pletcher was asked to name the figurative four number one seeds on the Kentucky Derby Trail, and he didn't hesitate with his answer.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012There were a lot of changes to the Kentucky Derby graded earnings chart over the weekend. Number 20 on the list now has $188,000, with several major preps left.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Our Kentucky Derby earnings chart now includes five horse late-nominated to the Triple Crown with graded earnings within the range set out on the chart -- and two of them are in the top 20.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012This race shows even matchups on paper, so like an NCAA Tournament game, it could result in a big surprise.
Friday, March 23, 2012It could turn out to be a bust, but I picked my winner of the Grade II Rebel Stakes about two weeks ago.
Friday, March 16, 2012Paddy O'Prado won the grade III Palm Beach Stakes in 2010, but last year Joes Blazing Aaron came away with the win. He went on to finish sixth in the grade I Toyota Blue Grass and has lost seven straight races.
Friday, March 09, 2012You could say that no race so far this year will weed out so many potentially serious Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) contenders as the grade II San Felipe -- but that's not necessarily the case.
Thursday, March 08, 2012The Gotham Stakes is one of those races that could end up exactly like you thought it wouldn't -- so maybe it will.
Thursday, March 01, 2012The grade II Fountain of Youth could come down to whether one of the three top-rated horses reacts well to a touch of the whip.
Friday, February 24, 2012The first division of the grade III Southwest Stakes looks like the stronger of the two, so we may have to work that much harder to find the winner. Let's get right down to it for both divisions.
Saturday, February 18, 2012Most of the horses in the Grade II Hutcheson Stakes field have something in common. And then there's Ever So Lucky.
Thursday, February 09, 2012The grade III Sam F. Davis looks like a wide-open affair going in, so let's see if we can winnow out some angles.
Friday, February 03, 2012The grade III Withers Stakes adds spice to the dead-of-winter Triple Crown Trail in New York. In the spirit of things, Dick Downey looks for a horse to upset Alpha.
Thursday, February 02, 2012We take a look at times, Beyer figs, speed figs, track variants and Brisnet figs for 1 1/8-mile Derby prep races.
Friday, May 06, 2011This report takes a look at recent workouts of every horse probable or possible to make the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands field at this point. It summarizes last-race information and workouts since then.
Friday, April 29, 2011The evolution of the Grade I Toyota Blue Grass has resulted in quite a few turf horses coming this year, something that surely wasn't expected back when Keeneland switched from dirt to Polytrack.
Thursday, April 14, 2011Updated list of contenders for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), ranked by graded earnings and with connections' information.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011We'll start by identifying a few horses that qualify for the Kentucky Derby but that may or may not compete in the race, and then we'll get into the probables and possibles for the upcoming prep races.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011If you watched the final game of the NCAA tournament, you have a feel for the makeup of the Grade I Wood Memorial field, except for one horse.
Thursday, April 07, 2011With only four weekends left before the Kentucky Derby, there are still dozens of horses in competition for a spot in the starting gate at Churchill Downs. Here's a rundown of next-start plans for 70 individual horses.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011Sometimes you have to go out on a limb, and I guess today is just one of those days. But I can't help myself, I think To Honor and Serve will win the grade I Florida Derby.
Friday, April 01, 2011While we're well down the road to the Kentucky Derby, we still have a few little races to run--most of them grade I's at a mile and an eighth. Here's a summary of where 56 contenders are going next.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011The Grade II Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes could set up with a traditional handicapping scenario: Early contested speed followed by stalkers with a chance to win. On paper anyway, this is a tough race.
Friday, March 25, 2011It's hard to believe that when this Saturday comes and goes, only six weeks will remain to the Kentucky Derby. Time flies when you're having fun. So here we go--where will the contenders and pretenders be running next.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011The grade II Rebel Stakes is, frankly, a difficult race to predict. But that doesn't mean we won't try. Let's start out with some numbers. If you didn't like numbers, you wouldn't be reading this in the first place.
Friday, March 18, 2011As the list of contenders for the Kentucky Derby begins to shrink, but with a lot of hopefuls still gunning for the first Saturday in May, here are next-race plans for 53 horses on our lists
Tuesday, March 15, 2011It's refreshing and unusual to hear an owner flat-out say in so many words that "we are here to win this race, and I'll be disappointed if we don't," but that's pretty much what Mike Repole said about the Gotham Stakes.
Thursday, March 03, 2011It feels like halftime in the 2011 Road to the Kentucky Derby. After last weekend, we culled numerous horses from our lists at The Downey Profile. Here are next-race plans--or lack of plans--for 65 horses still on our lists.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011The field for the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes could be divided into two camps, with four of the entries having a fair amount of starts under their belts and four having limited experience and thus more upside potential.
Thursday, February 24, 2011In 2010, only two horses shipped over from South Florida to compete in the grade II Risen Star Stakes, producing the winner, but this year there are five such shippers comprising half the field.
Thursday, February 17, 2011While Brethren is the morning line favorite in the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes, he's a 5-2 favorite, not a 6-5 favorite. Not yet, anyway.
Friday, February 11, 2011The field for the grade III Holy Bull Stakes on Sunday is solid enough top to bottom that all nine entries are on the lists we maintain at The Downey Profile. And why not, with $400,000 on the line?
Friday, January 28, 2011The Florida Stallion In Reality Stakes affords us the opportunity to see a top Florida-bred juvenile in action at Calder on Saturday, Gourmet Dinner.
Friday, October 15, 2010This large field could produce some surprises, but then again, how surprised could we be at anything that happens when there are six horses with morning lines between 4-1 and 8-1?
Friday, October 08, 2010In 52 of the last 55 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, the winner was either on the lead with an eighth of a mile to go in the race, within a length of the lead, or running second although more than a length off the leader.
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