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Saturday's Gotham is the first chance for 3-year-olds on the Derby trail to earn graded stakes money in New York. For that reason, we usually get our first real look at promising horses that are based in the Northeast and a new Triple Crown prospect usually emerges. This year's race came up a strong. A field of nine was entered and at least four ...

Another week, another new Kentucky Derby contender from Florida. Actually, make that two. With Quality Road's resounding win in the Fountain of Youth and Theregoesjojo's impressive runner-up, the Florida picture has certainly become much clearer. Notontheamepage and This Ones for Phil, who both bounced like racquetballs, and Capt. Candyman Can ...

The Fountain of Youth is always one of the most highly-anticipated Derby prep races of the year, but with the race now at one-mile for the first time in its history, the dynamics of it have changed dramatically from a handicapping perspective. It means speed is a much bigger factor. That is especially true this year, with Gulfstream's track ...

He ranks fourth all-time in wins and tenth in money earned, yet when the sport's most prominent and popular trainers are mentioned Jerry Hollendorfer is rarely the first name mentioned. Maybe that's because until recently he has been tucked up in Northern California, or perhaps it's the fact that he has never had that big Triple Crown horse. ...

With all the buzz surrounding Rachel Alexandra's sparkling win in last weekend's Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up with Hal Wiggins. Though the veteran trainer did not say his talented filly would be pointed towards a Derby run, he definitely left the door open. I'm not sure what to make ...

There has been a lot of talk on this blog about Old Fashioned's performance in the Southwest. Considering what he did in the Remsen, was it all that we expected out of his 3-year-old debut? Were the relatively average final splits (:51 1/5) too slow for a legitimate Derby favorite? Was his victory just an average showing based on a) less than ...

So, has everybody found their horse in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 1? Or, if you're like me, are you less than thrilled with many of the 23 horses that wound up on the list? As Steve Haskin pointed out in his column, many talented 3-year-olds were left off Pool 1, which opened Thursday and closes on Sunday. And many on the list don't ...

As some of you may remember, it was in early March of last year when I watched a video on YouTube of Big Brown destroying an allowance field at Gulfstream and posted it on this blog. It was hard to watch that race and not feel like Big Brown was something special. Thanks to a couple bloggers giving me a heads up, I have that same feeling again ...

Risen Star - Fair Grounds I expected to see many of the same horses from the Lecomte in here (there are four), but didn't expect to see a total of 13 entered. It has made for a very good, but challenging betting race. We'll find out a lot about several so-called Derby contenders after this one is over. If you watched That Handicapping Show you ...

I think it's safe to say that with the exception of Capt. Candyman Can and Hello Broadway, most of last week's high-profile horses that ran at Gulfstream were disappointing. Checklist, Break Water Edison, Danger to Society and Well Positioned are just a few who took a major step backward. Unless another Big Brown comes along very soon, maybe ...