Absolute garbage to hand out a ruling on Brad Cox after the Derby, and the 10-day suspension be between Preakness and Belmont ... for a violation from June 2021.
Nobody's even trying to be straight-faced about this stuff.
I wish everyone snarky on Twitter about Patch would have met the families of special needs kids I had the fortune to last year at Mountaineer, who traveled to meet the horse who inspired them.
Salute to Mike Battaglia, 50 years making the Kentucky Derby morning line.
Say what you want about a price here and there, but you last 50 years in anything in your lifetime and it's not done without respect across multiple generations of co-workers and bosses.
Love the guy.
Bob Baffert with 3 of the 5 Los Al Futurity entrants, taking on Tim Yakteen (who may end up with said 3 other entrants by Derby Day) as well as Leandro Mora, subbing for a suspended Doug O'Neill.
What are we even doing here?
Apparently today is the first time many on racing Twitter has seen an overnight. How the F did you get to June 7, 2022 and realize there was a field-size issue?
Can we quit doing fluff pieces on trainers that 95% of people who can read past performances suspect are cheating?
Use your common sense if you don't have an FBI wiretap.
Cover their horses as news items, but let's not humanize and glamorize these barns.
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) announced today that the player disqualified from the 2022 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) will be suspended from the NHC and NHC Tour for a period of two years.
If this was Joe in Kansas City his name would be used.
We had a Triple Crown that was spread out June-September-October in 2020.
Max Player was the only horse to run in all 3 legs. Max who?!#!@? Exactly.
The idea that spacing the races out is the fix for a series that isn't broken is misled.
Am I seeing this right that you need to buy a $42.99 to $64.00
@DailyRacingForm
package for Breeders' Cup in order to purchase Pre-Entry Past Performances?
Please correct me if wrong.
What an absolutely disgusting maneuver if correct.
My 73-year-old dad called to tell me that he started handicapping the Derby this morning and we came up with the same horse. I've apparently wasted 5 months instead of making a single phonecall.
#Thankspops
Prediction: You will be so sick of the Gronkowski coverage by 6:30 pm on May 5 that you will be rooting against the horse himself. Editor's Note: Three-quarters of America hates the Patriots already.
10 years ago today, Dec. 15, 2009, Horse Player NOW launched. I'm proud of the dedicated team behind all our projects, and the horseplayers we've help blossom. A Merry Christmas and happy holiday season to all. And, most importantly, a big 'Thank you!' -- Jeremy Plonk
Don't tell us how great your horse is doing and then release a statement that you've been under vet consultation for days trying to figure out a lameness.
No free passes for Brad Cox. Yes, you're in a tough spot; but lying openly to the press and public is not the solution.
Maximum Security is 2-3 lengths better than this crop right now. There's just no one else reaching up to match his Florida Derby & Kentucky Derby. But it's a long year.
You get 1 question to ask about the Justify situation...what would it be?
Mine: How many other Jimson Weed contaminations showed up on tests in California around April 2018?
The answer to that tips the scale one way or the other.
The Larry Melancon moment I'll never forget: 1994
@RemingtonPark
Derby wiring them on Smilin Singin Sam, beating local legend Silver Goblin and folks on the apron actually cried.
Tom Durkin, yes Tom Durkin, on the ESPN call.
RIP, Larry Melancon.
#TBT
to 1997 rider’s up when I snapped Eoin Harty legging up
@GStevens_jockey
aboard Silver Charm with Bob Baffert looking on as he said ‘May the horse be with you.’ Taken with disposable camera from Derby party table favors.
In a disgusting era of celebrity worship, Deion Sanders winning Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for running his mouth after beating 5-7, 5-7, 5-7 and 3-9 teams while going 4-8 (1-8 in conference) is peak 2023.
If you had Saffie ----> Dutrow on your "What Can We Do Next in Racing?" bingo card, go collect.
White Abarrio to Rick Dutrow for the Met Mile while Saffie is banned.
Congrats to
@AQHARacing
@RuidosoDowns
2019 All American Futurity winner Mr Jess Jenkins. We hope you followed our free AAF Wagering Guide, where Jeremy Plonk delivered the 13-1 winner and exacta to the tune of $669 in returns.
Most everything that's wrong with horse racing summed up in a few hundred words.
- Trainer has disdain for paying customers
- Repeated cheater
- Wimpy fine / days negotiated to 50%
- Son will take over barn in absence
For the $206 share they were selling in Authentic, you could have gotten $1,936.40 back just betting him to win. My guess is that would have been the more profitable path.
Pleased to see DRF terminate its paywall for content. I moved Countdown to the Crown from DRF in '13 because it placed portions of scouting report behind paywall. I've long advocated for free online news content; it's our job as publishers to monetize (ads, corporate partners).
Luke Kruytbosch Stakes today at Turf Paradise.
Hard to describe how good he was as a track announcer. Imagine how much history he could have loaned his voice to.
Going to court to get clearance to run a horse who was injured, in order to skate rules put in place to protect the recovery of an injured horse who has no voice, would be as bad of a look as horse racing could get ... whether injured or not ... Don't fight this Forte decision.
Switzer debuts Saturday at Keeneland and will be running during the fourth quarter of the Oklahoma-Texas game. I don't think I could possibly be any more biased toward a horse.
The Coast-to-Coast pick 5 returns Saturday with ALL graded stakes.
Gulfstream Park Race 12
Santa Anita Race 5
Gulfstream Park Race 13
Santa Anita Race 6
Gulfstream Park Race 14
97% of Twitter doesn't want Joel Rosario on their horse.
The other 3% put him into the Hall of Fame.
It's these kind of razor-thin debates as to why we love to bet the races.
My favorite Pimlico memory growing up was Dad and I always buying homemade fried chicken wrapped in aluminum foil out of a grocery cart that a local man sold when exiting the track. That sounds impossibly wrong in 2020, but it was SO VERY RIGHT back then.
25 years ago today (August 1, 1994) the journey began by starting my internship at Churchill Downs. A quarter century later, racing has been good to me and my family that since started. Came a long way from $4.25 an hour and met lifelong friends.
Totally understandable on the business end for the owners of Cutting Humor to reach out to Mike Smith and try to get the Hall of Fame rider. But equally appropriate for Smith to politely decline sacking a fellow rider. Thought they were a brotherhood who keep eachother safe?
Stoked to release the 118-page 6th Countdown to the Crown Preseason Annual digital magazine this Friday! Free to all, thanks to
@Xpressbet
@OaklawnRacing
@PreaknessStakes
, our title sponsors. Shout out
@Brisnet
for research assist. Proudly pays tribute to John Asher.
Record $56 million handle for Breeders' Cup Friday sort of tells you what you kind of already knew: Twitter and the media doesn't speak for America. No way on Earth that happens if you're accepting the temperature of social and mainstream media.
Starting clickbait headlines with "Report" and then just absolutely stealing a published article through "citations" without any real need to jump is a disgusting practice done by too many racing industry for-profits. Please create your own payroll and play the game right.
Today in horse heaven, the great Ben's Cat is looking at his pals and saying, "Which one of you wants an ass-kicking on THIS third Friday in May?"
Happy Ben's Cat Day.
Photo credit: Lucky me.
I've personally taught thousands of young people about horse racing face-to-face; the first thing they light up about is when informed they are betting against eachother and not the house. I then tell them to look to your left/right, are you smarter than THAT guy? They all nod.
Congrats to our longtime Night School and
@Xpressbet
Wager Guide contributor
@Steve_Byk
on being voted top horse racing podcast/radio show by the game's customers and fans.
Jim McKay to D. Wayne Lukas after Criminal Type's 1990 Pimlico Special win: You've gone over the $100 million mark. Congratulations on that, too.
Lukas: Well, thank you. I just wish we would have learned how to keep a little of it.
I remember the good, old days of Twitter when if you thought Midnight Bisou could beat Elate (even once) that you were deemed clueless. Seems like only about a month (and two wins) ago.
What happened to the New York blow-hards, who after 3-4 days at Saratoga, said Flavien Prat was a bum and the Spa ain't riding against Umberto Rispoli everyday?
Prat finished 2nd in standings by wins (40) & 1st by percentage (21%) despite 48-89 mounts less than other top pilots.
Fierceness worked like a Kentucky Derby favorite today. Plenty of time discuss value, risk and obstacles, but if you thought he left his race on the Florida Derby track, uncheck that box.
Work of the Day from
#PalmBeachDowns
—Fierceness (Inside), 1:00.50, and Agate Road, 1:00.90, worked 5 Furlongs on April 19th, 2024, for trainer
@PletcherRacing
.
Fan education and player development begins with the responsibility to provide realistic and sensible money management suggestions from industry professionals. Most of the suggested wagers I see published are either a farse or mathematically/strategically unsound.
If we get Rich Strike, Epicenter and Secret Oath as expected in the
@PreaknessStakes
, it will mark the 2nd time in history that the Derby 1-2 meet the Oaks winner in Baltimore (the other time in 2009). Shaping up as a historic matchup.
@1stbet
@Xpressbet
@1ST_Racing
What was it like being in the infield for Secretariat’s 1973
@KentuckyDerby
win? Found some of my Mom and Dad’s Polaroids. I was 1-1/2. Wonder who was babysitting?