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By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Although Saratoga figures to attract most of the attention this week thanks to its stakes-packed Saturday card, I would be remiss for failing to highlight the excellent day of racing Del Mar has assembled for the same afternoon. Eleven races are on the agenda, and there's something ...

Maximum Security’s nose score in the July 25 San Diego Handicap (G2) at Del Mar was a “comeback” win of sorts. The star-crossed 4-year-old’s victory in Southern California was his first for new trainer Bob Baffert,  replacing Jason Servis, who has been charged with administering performance-enhancing drugs in a sweeping doping scandal that ...

After writing the Hangin' With Haskin column for 12 years and the Derby Dozen, numerous features and columns, and providing lead coverage of all the major stakes for 22 years, I no longer will be writing for the Blood Horse and Bloodhorse.com due to my contract coming to an end. So this is my final column. As most of you know, I ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman While it's always tempting to search for longshots in major stakes races, sometimes the favorites are simply too formidable to play against. Such cases don't require you to take the opposite approach and sink your entire wagering budget into short-priced favorites—the risk vs. ...

It’s a lead to a column that can only make sense in 2020: Never have racetrack executives worked so hard to have 3,546 show up on a meet’s biggest day. Well, that was the case “down the Shore” July 17 at Monmouth Park where CEO and chairman Dennis Drazin and his team worked around the clock to put on a Haskell Stakes day program with fans. In the ...

Let’s look at this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) realistically. After the top three it is a study in futility trying to rank the rest of the horses. There simply isn’t enough to go by, as these horses keep beating each other and the vast majority of performances have been fairly ordinary. You have solid horses like Ny ...

With horses sired by the first three finishers of the 2007 Kentucky Derby (G1)—Street Sense, Hard Spun, and Curlin—all still on the Derby trail and with another Derby hopeful having won the Street Sense Stakes, this is a good time to go back and reprint my recap of the 2007 Derby, which has never been reprinted.  The 133rd Kentucky Derby ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The Road to the Kentucky Derby continues in a big way this week with a pair of important prep races. The Peter Pan Stakes (G3) on July 16 at Saratoga will award 50 qualification points to the winner, while the July 18 Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park will double the stakes with ...

Here we are heading to Saratoga with its two important Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) preps and only days away from the Haskell Invitational (G1). And we still have the Ellis Park Derby, which is likely to attract several Derby hopefuls based in Kentucky. After the top three ranked 3-year-olds - Tiz the Law, Honor A. P., ...