May 4th Trivia

Just thought I would add that May 4th - which is Kentucky Derby day this year..

is also the day when:

1991 BC juvenile champion and a horse that gave one of the greatest moves in televised history of horse racing - ARAZI - was born in 1989 in Kentucky.

2013 Pittsburgh marathon and half marathon is being run

2013 River Towns marathon and half marathon is being run - <<- I am running the half and my 4 furlong workouts have been nowhere near 50 secs. They have been more like 300 secs. Of course, I realize am not a horse!

--- End - Random Trivia ----

D Wayne Lucas Horse

Just thought I would throw in a workout that caught my eye. This is from almost a week back, but the D Wayne Lucas traineer Will Take Charge worked out at Churchill Downs. I am still a newbie to figuring out horses, but this seemed to relish the run on the dry track.

Workout by "Will Take Charge"

You have to remember, this horse (Will Take Charge) was in a long drive and went past several horses and collared Oxbow (also a Lucas trainee) close to the wire, in the Rebel Stakes. (Click to see Race Video)

On Oxbow, I feel like this horse gets played up by the experts, but if you look at this performances, he has gotten to the lead and then relinquished it, in multiple races.

His lead shrunk from 3.5 lengths to just 1 1/2 in the LeComte (which he won).
He got up to the lead entering the stretch in the Risen Star Stakes, but 3 other horses managed to beat him to the wire.
He led in the Risen Star before losing to Will Take Charge.

Oxbow's connections even switched Jon Court off of him and put hall of fame jockey Mike Smith on him for the Rebel Stakes, but it did not help him win. Jon Court instead got some revenge? by winning the Rebel. I don't think Oxbow has what it takes to come out in the stretch and finish in the top 3 of the Derby, unless there is a super fast pace early on.

Here's his workout

Oxbow workout

Feel free to share your comments on what you think.

Animal Kingdom at Ascot: Johnny V back on board

Team Valor Intl has put John Velazquez (Johnny V) back on board Animal Kingdom to ride in the Royal Ascot in June.

Joel Rosario rode Animal Kingdom to victory in the Dubai World Cup recently.

But, considering the course switch (uphill and straight) from the synthetic track with turns, Team Valor announced that they will go with the more experienced Johnny V who has ridden at Ascot about 3 times previous.

Best of Luck Animal Kingdom!

Source: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/77802/velazquez-to-ride-animal-kingdom-at-ascot?source=rss

Penn State Quarter Horse Sale - Apr 27th Sat

Reposting this to give wider coverage to the PSU Quarter Horse Sale, managed and put up by students in the Equine Sciences and allied fields!

Fun thread about new Trainer Legall on NYRA circuit

The quick news: Ricardo E. Legall used to be an exercise rider in the nyra circuit until recently. Congratulations on his first victory and we wish him the best of luck for many more.

Why am I posting this? Read on....

In what is turning out to be a humorous discussion, the victory of a filly named Jealous (foaled 2009) in a maiden race (6F) in her 7th career start, is generating a lot of buzz on the horse racing site/handicapping forum paceadvantage.

The original poster noted that this filly had fairly subpar performances till she switched to a new trainer, Ricardo E. Legall, and won her maiden race. The interesting matter was that this seems to be the first ever race for this trainer (at least if we go by Equibase stats). So, as of now, Ricky Legall has a 100% trainer win rate.

Now, the thread got humorous when one poster (and I thought about this too but didn't mention it there) started speculating about the trainer's name and how it sounds when you pronouce the middle initial and the last name together. Go ahead, try it ;).

Since the thread was getting hot and I was getting quite curious about this trainer,  I tried a few different searches on google, duckduckgo and bing. I found relevant answers quickly! But first...

Off topic slightly: During this search I came across a gem of a document showcasing various NYRA trainers here. [pdf download]

Back on topic: I found out that this mysterious new entrant into the NYRA training circuit, is not that mysterious at all. He seems to have been a regular exercise rider with several horses for leading trainer Anthony Dutrow. Below is a clip of him riding J W Blue in Aug 2011. We could say this with a high degree of accuracy. A source at NYRA confirmed that Ricky Legall did work as an exercise rider before and was happy to hear that Ricky won his first race!

Other links discussing Ricky Legall as an exercise rider can be found here and here. Anyways, this was a fun exercise for me to look up various information. Thanks for reading.

Major Derby Contenders Working Out

The major contenders for the Kentucky Derby have qualified so far and have also shifted to Churchill Downs and have started working out over the dirt track.

The youtube channel of Kentucky Derby has been very gracious to post regular videos of workouts and other analysis to keep viewers and bettors informed.

Verrazano Workout 

Derby Backside Buzz byJill Byrne - covering V-zano, Revolutionary, Normandy Invasion (gets some special praise)

Horse Racing Here We Come

This site is set up in honor of the amazing sport of horse racing, where man and animal come together and thunder around the racetrack at high speeds, bumping each other and in rain, shine or snow, all in the quest of that magical wire.

We will be adding a lot more content in the weeks to come and especially with the Kentucky Derby (presented by Yum brands) in few weeks, it is going to be a fun time.

Meanwhile, watch this gem of a race by Afleet Alex in the Preakness of 2005. This race call is by a different announcer (not Tom Durkin). He follows AA way more closely and thereby gives a different perspective of the evolving race. It is odd that this one did not get as much coverage. Sadly, Afleet Alex did not get the best of rides in the Derby and could only finish a close third.

2005 Preakness Video - Afleet Alex

Courtest Youtube user GabrielBrandon

Tom Durkin Call of Preakness 2005