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The year 2000 marked a new era in the history of the Breeders' Cup. Aidan O'Brien, the master of Ballydoyle, had sent a handful of horses to America to compete in the World Championships in 1998 and '99 with little fanfare and no success. But this year was different. This year, O'Brien was bringing his best horse, not to conquer the Mile, Sprint, ...

While the weather in Central Kentucky this spring has been anything but “spring like,” we can expect next year’s spring in the Midwest to be pretty heated. That intel came with an April 11 press release that announced Oaklawn Park will “extend” its 2019 meet three weeks past its traditional close with the Arkansas Derby (G1) and will run through ...

1 Vino Rosso Todd Pletcher Curlin—Mythical Bride, by Street Cry What 3-year-old has run the fastest Thoro-Graph number in America this year? Hint: it’s a tie and they all did it in their final Derby prep. The tie is between Justify (of course), Audible (no surprise there), and Vino Rosso (really?). That’s right, Vino Rosso ran the same ...

The connections of four horses being considered for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) will be watching the season's final two Road to the Kentucky Derby points races closely April 14. The race with the most potential to upset the apple cart is the Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park, which offers points on a 100-40-20-10 scale to ...

Before I begin my analysis of Saturday's $1 million Arkansas Derby (gr. I) at Oaklawn Park, let me say now that I'm going a bit outside the box with my selection and don't necessarily advise you to follow suit. Once in a while, a race comes along in which I can make a case against all of the favorites, at which point I feel as though I ...

Few people have experienced the joy of breeding or racing a horse good enough to start in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). Imagine how breeder John Gunther felt April 7 after two horses he bred—Vino Rosso and Justify—won the Wood Memorial presented by NYRA Bets (G2) and Santa Anita Derby (G1), respectively. Both figure to ...

1 Vino Rosso Todd Pletcher Curlin—Mythical Bride, by Street Cry I know this is going to shock a lot of people, being the only one of 25 voters in the Derby Media Poll to have him No. 1 and the only one of 46 voters in the NTRA poll (he ranks 8th and 9th on both polls). But when totally confused, look outside the box. This colt actually ...

It has been one of my missions in horse racing to re-tell the story of Jim French every four or five years, because if I don’t it will quickly fade away and not even remain a minor footnote in the history books. For those who have never read or heard the story, and even those who have, but stashed it away in the deepest recesses of the mind, I ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Bolt d'Oro or Justify? While it's rare to see two of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby square off four weeks out from the big race, racing fans will be treated to a special exception in Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park. The unbeaten, untested ...