Simon Says: What To Make Of The Kentucky Derby Preps
March 8, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon Kentucky Derby Preps That Are Safe to Ignore Starting in about two weeks, the real Kentucky Derby preps begin — the 170-point affairs that not only assure the winners a spot in the Churchill Downs starting gate on the first Saturday in May, but also serve (in most cases) as the horses’ final tune-up. […]
Race Of The Week: Fountain of Youth Stakes
March 2, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon After a brief stop in Nebraska for the Maxxam Gold Cup, the Road to the Kentucky Derby resumes this week with a biggie — the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. In addition to luring last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse Good Magic, who has […]
Race Of The Week: Maxxam Gold Cup
February 24, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon Well, after a string of great races for the sophomore set, this week the Road to the Kentucky Derby winds through Nebraska — which is just a clever way of saying that there isn’t a big Kentucky Derby prep this weekend. (No knock to you Nebraskans out there, but if you’ve ever traveled through the Cornhusker […]
Race of the Week: Risen Star Stakes
February 16, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon There’s a scene in “Bad Boys 2” in which Martin Lawrence turns to Will Smith and says, “[Expletive] just got real.” That’s how I feel about the Road to the Kentucky Derby, which winds through Louisiana on Saturday where the first of the 85-point races (50 points to the winner) takes place at […]
Race Of The Week: Sam F. Davis Stakes
February 9, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon I have long believed that the key to consistently making money at the races is constructing good bets and, for the first time since US Racing launched the Race of the Week promotion, I think I failed in that endeavor last week. And I don’t say this because my top selection in the Holy […]
Race Of The Week: Will There Be A Shocker In The Holy Bull?
February 2, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon My top selection, West Coast, gave it his all in last weekend’s Race of the Week — the $16.3 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park — but he couldn’t catch Gun Runner, who won his swan song by 2 ½ lengths and retired as North America’s second-richest racehorse of all time with $15,988,500 […]
Pegasus World Cup Analysis
January 27, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon This week’s USRacing.com Race of the Week is the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. And while this year’s $16 million Gulfstream Park feature may lack the luster of last year’s inaugural event, which featured a Breeders’ Cup Class rematch between the reigning Horse of the Year Arrogate and California Chrome, who was […]
Is Mask A Contender Or Pretender On Kentucky Derby Trail
January 10, 2018 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon Is he worthy of all the hype? In a word, no. Look, I get it. Mask won the Mucho Macho Man by 6 ¼ lengths — under wraps — and earned a 100 Brisnet Speed Figure (BSF) in the process. Over the past 26 years, 23 winners of the Run for the […]
The Greatest Kentucky Derby Myth of All
December 14, 2017 | Derek SimonOne of the things I find fascinating about horseracing — well, life, really — is what folks accept as true that isn’t. Conclusions that seem logical are often considered fact regardless of how strong or weak the supporting data is — or whether there is any supporting data at all. Take, for example, the popular […]
Gun Runner Wins Breeders’ Cup Classic in Decisive Fashion
November 5, 2017 | Derek SimonBy Derek Simon For much of the year, the Horse of the Year debate was no debate at all. It was Arrogate and everybody else. After a scintillating performance in the Dubai World Cup, Bob Baffert’s stable star was the horse that every other horse wanted to be when it grew up. He was American […]
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