2016 Triple Crown Nominations PPs
Past performances for horse nominated to the 2016 Triple Crown.
DRF StaffFeb 03, 2015
Past performances for horse nominated to the 2016 Triple Crown.
Smart Ashley will be facing winners for the first time Thursday, but she should vie for favoritism in the first-level allowance for fillies and mares that headlines a nine-race program at Oaklawn.
Betting by telephone has officially come to Arizona. Months after legislation allowing advanced-deposit wagering was signed into law, the logistics have been worked out, and on Friday, the Arizona Department of Racing authorized Turf Paradise to start.
Trainer Mark Casse has unleashed some quality 3-year-olds on the Oaklawn meet just three weeks into the season, and one of those winners will see stakes action in the immediate future. Casse said Kantune, who popped a Beyer Speed Figure of 84 in winning a maiden special weight route, is headed for the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest at Oaklawn.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dortmund, the unbeaten winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in December, worked a half-mile in 47.60 seconds Tuesday. Dortmund will be favored in his 3-year-old debut, the $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Saturday.
Shared Belief has completed his serious preparation for Saturday’s $500,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita.
After losses in four stakes from August to December – all Grade 1 or Grade 2 – Talco will be given a break from top-class competition and starts in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Thursday.
American Pharoah, the Eclipse Award winner for top 2-year-old male, is the top individually listed wagering interest behind the heavily favored mutuel field in Pool 2 of the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for a three-day run.
The harsh weather – and news of the 14 equine fatalities at Aqueduct since the inner track opened Dec. 3 – wouldn’t seem to make New York the ideal place for a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender to reside. But the multiple stakes winner El Kabeir is not only living here, he appears to be thriving.
The concept that a good trainer, even an Eclipse Award-winning trainer, can be a bad bet in certain circumstances was introduced in our very first “Bet This, Not That” column, in which we noted Todd Pletcher’s numbers in Grade 1 stakes on turf (1 for 50 with a $0.13 return on investment over the past five years as of this writing, with the last winner coming in July 2012) and Bob Baffert’s stats in turf sprints at Santa Anita (1 for 39, $0.09 ROI, with last winner coming in February 2010).