BALTIMORE - When a Kentucky Derby winner comes to Pimlico for the Preakness, the media hail him and describe him as a potential superstar. But bettors typically regard the horse with skepticism.
DRF Past Performances
Skip to main content
NEW YORK - In most years, the Kentucky Derby answers most of the questions that everyone had going into the race: Which were the really key prep races? Which colts can truly handle the classic distances and which ones are really milers? Do one or two of the Derby class simply tower over their contemporaries?
BALTIMORE - Gary Stevens, racing's American in Paris, can't remember the last time he missed the Kentucky Derby, either as a participant, as a young rider on the sidelines, or as a kid in a household filled with horse lore. That's because he never has.
For Stevens, Derby Day is a national holiday, an event so dear to his heart that the mere mention of the race brings a lump to his throat, closely followed by a reverent monologue. Winning three Derbies will do that to you.
BALTIMORE - The Smarty Jones bandwagon is officially full. Sorry, folks, the fire marshals have ruled. They're already dangling from the fenders and piled high on the roof, crammed in like circus clowns in a Volkswagen.
What began as a quiet, unassuming project with a little known 3-year-old last January has become nothing less than a once-in-a-lifetime racing phenomenon. Little wonder that fans and media everywhere are clamoring to share the moment, touch the hem of Smarty's garment, or simply catch a glimpse of their hero as he passes by in the crowd.
NEW YORK - Having been spectacularly wrong about everything going into this year's Kentucky Derby - my five selections ran a sterling 5-7-8-9-12 - it's not surprising that my predictive powers proved equally sharp in the moments after the race. My first thought as the Derby field splashed home was that there would now be a fat field for the Preakness, since the sloppy track had probably kept many horses from running a representative race, or at least had furnished every loser with a plausible excuse.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Sunday's homage to motherhood, brought to you by Hallmark cards, rightfully should carry forth into the Thoroughbred world, where the entire shaky structure rests upon the simple proposition that class is nurtured in the womb, and that all things good usually can be traced to a simple word:
Dam.
In staging the $250,000 Vanity Handicap on Sunday, Hollywood Park has rightly focused attention on the best possible local assembly of older fillies and mares - better known as the future of the sport.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The $350,000 Jim Murray Memorial Handicap on Saturday at Hollywood Park honors the life and work of the man often referred to as America's greatest sportswriter.
Says who? Well, a Pulitzer Prize, for starters, along with 14 nods from the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters as America's Best Sportswriter, as well as a place in the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.