BloodHorse.com

In some ways, the debate over the Kentucky stewards' decision to disqualify Maximum Security from victory in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) now falls into the laps of horseplayers across the country. That's because a key question in handicapping the Preakness Stakes (G1) is: ''How much was War of Will, and possibly other ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman From a sporting perspective, Saturday's $1.5 million Preakness Stakes (gr. I) at Pimlico isn't particularly exciting. The first four horses to cross the finish line in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) are all skipping the Preakness, so for the first time since 1996, there won't be a Triple ...

This year’s Preakness obviously is not going to be an historical gem, at least on paper, considering it not only lacks the Kentucky Derby winner, for the time ever it lacks two Kentucky Derby winners – the one who had it initially and the one who snatched it away from him. And to go one better, of the first four horses who crossed the finish ...

While the heads in the editorial offices of BloodHorse are collectively continuing to spin from the results of the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), there are all sorts of other “spin” out there. From Louisville to Baltimore, it seems everyone wants us to show another angle. In the days following the Derby drama of the ...

Someday, hopefully in the not too distant future, all the anger, pain, frustration, and feuding that resulted from the 2019 Kentucky Derby will at least dissipate to the point where we can all move on. For some, like Gary and Mary West, Jason Servis, Luis Saez and all those who saw their scorching mutuel tickets reduced to ashes right before ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Five years ago, a stoutly-bred colt named Commissioner tried to pull off a gate-to-wire upset in the 1 ½-mile Belmont Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park. Entering the final furlong, he was 1 ½ lengths in front, and victory in the third jewel of the Triple Crown seemed all but ...

This is not merely the account of the agent. I have been texting with him and talking to him on the phone since January and following and chronicling every step of this, the ups and downs, as it happened. It is a behind the scenes look at a jockey and his agent's long arduous journey to the Derby and their pursuit of the Derby dream and ...

It had always been hard to believe that in the first 144 runnings of the Kentucky Derby (G1) there hadn’t been an incident on the track that was egregious enough to disqualify the winner. Derby first-place finisher Dancer’s Image’s testing positive for a prohibited substance—phenylbutazone (Bute)—and subsequent disqualification comes to mind, but ...