Dan Illman

Racing is a wonderfully exhilarating, intellectually challenging, interactive process where fans "compete" equally with the kings and queens of the turf.  While owners, trainers, and jockeys use wins and losses in higher-quality stakes races to determine success and failure, handicappers measure their ups-and-downs at the betting windows.  There is no other sport like horse racing.  But, boy, it's a tough, tough game.

There's a little something for everyone at this weekend's scrumptious racing buffet. Racing fans looking to anoint the next superstar will be watching UNCLE MO with tremendous interest as he goes off the heavy, heavy favorite in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Triple Crown form students will study the results of the Wood, the Santa Anita Derby (now, unfortunately, without the two morning line favorites in PREMIER PEGASUS and JAYCITO) and, to a lesser extent, the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne.

Today's HandiGambling 228 exercise is the ninth race at Gulfstream Park, a $35,000 maiden claimer for three-year-olds and upward at one mile on the grass.

Lots to cover today. *** Here are the top 25 winning Beyer Speed Figures from last week's races:

On paper, Sunday's Florida Derby looks like the season's strongest Kentucky Derby prep.  It's a race that poses some fascinating questions, as do many of the other stakes scheduled for the weekend.  Let's try to answer a few of them: Excelsior Stakes - Aqueduct - Race 9: Q1:  Is UNDERSTATEMENT loose on the lead? Q2:  Is INHERIT THE GOLD merely an Inner Track freak?