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By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Better late than never, the $400,000 Santa Anita Derby (G1) will be contested on Saturday at Santa Anita. The 1 1/8-mile Road to the Kentucky Derby prep race has attracted seven starters, representing some of the most talented 3-year-olds in California. Let's dig in and start ...

The Thoroughbred racing landscape is coming back to life with the depth of a 1960s movie in Cinemascope. The New York Racing Association jump-started its racing calendar June 3, and racing re-broke from the gate at Laurel Park May 30. Monmouth Park in New Jersey has been cleared for a July 3 start. The graded stakes action at Churchill Downs since ...

Despite what the history books say, there really is not a big difference between an all-time great horse and a horse who had all-time greatness in him. Human athletes like Sandy Koufax, Gale Sayers, and Bo Jackson showed how all-time greatness can be demonstrated even in an ...

The order of races in the Triple Crown series has changed for 2020. The race dates have been shifted from spring to the summer and fall. The distance of the Belmont Stakes (G1) has changed. Yet, based on the expressed interest of horsemen with talented 3-year-olds in the first leg of this year’s series—the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Stakes June 20 at ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Although it's only a Grade 3 with a $100,000 purse, Saturday's Winning Colors Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs has drawn a surprisingly deep field. Eight talented fillies and mares have turned out to contest the six-furlong sprint, and it would come as no surprise to see the 2020 ...

The big dilemma this year is whether we have some form of a Triple Crown. Will the winner of all three classics go down as the 14th Triple Crown winner, along with Secretariat, Citation, American Pharoah, Justify and the others or will there be a Triple Crown winner with an asterisk or will there not be a Triple Crown winner at all, even if ...

Although the Belmont Stakes (G1) is not the Belmont as we know it, far from it, by being run around one turn at a mile and an eighth with a testing pace likely down that long straightaway, this version of the Belmont may actually be more attractive to breeders than the traditional Belmont Stakes, as it should resemble the Met Mile (G1) more than ...

Let us first acknowledge the fact that from strictly a historical standpoint, this year's Belmont Stakes (G1) is closer to a one-turn Wood Memorial Presented by NYRA Bets (G2) with a three-hour NBC telecast than it is to the Belmont Stakes. Don't get me wrong, the Belmont is going to be a great race and I'm looking forward to it, but from a ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Guess what? We're three weeks into the month of May, and the Road to the Kentucky Derby is about to heat back up! We're heading into uncharted territory as the restructured series continues on Saturday with the $150,000 Matt Winn (G3) at Churchill Downs. Historically, the 1 ...