I think it’s a forgone conclusion that Curlin will be the heavy favorite at the Woodward Stakes on August 30. His short lived experiment on turf seems to be finished, at least for the time being, and now that he’s back on a dirt surface we can expect to see the horse that won the Dubai World Cup and the Stephen Foster Handicap.

Curlin should be at least a 2/1 favorite against the small field at the Woodward. Nito Zito seems to think that Wanderin Boy may have a chance against Curlin because of a weight advantage, but I wouldn’t bet against Curlin showing up and taking charge of the race. Last Wednesday, Timeform of England ranked Curlin as the best horse in the world, which will only improve his odds. Jesse Jackson is racing him in the Woodward to “add to his legacy”, and fully expects him to win.

The death of Eight Bells at the Kentucky Derby has lead some calls for action buy many people. One proposal that makes a lot of sense, and in all honesty I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet, is banning trainers from drugging their horses on race day.

In the New York Times Gina Rarick wrote:

If a horse needs medication, it is not fit to run. That principle governs the rules of racing in all of Europe, most of Asia and Dubai. The United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and some South American countries allow a panoply of race-day medications from anti-inflammatory drugs, which mask pain, to lasix, the diuretic drug that some believe controls bleeding in the lungs of a racehorse.

It’s obvious that the horses’ health and safety is not the main concern in some countries. For humans it’s a standard rule that drugging is not allowed, not safe and not fair. The same should go for the horses as well. These horses are living, breathing beings with hearts and minds just like us but it’s our job to protect them because they can’t protect themselves against us.

horse drugging

The Preakness Stakes often gets overlooked as the middle child of the Triple Crown. This year’s 133rd Run for the Black-Eyed Susans will be particularly anticlimactic – and not just because of the death of Eight Belles.

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown is making the trip to Pimlico. Nobody else from the Derby is joining him now that Recapturetheglory has been pulled out of the race with a fever. Assuming the current 12-horse field goes unchanged between now and this Saturday, this will be the first time the Derby winner has faced completely fresh competition at the Preakness since Citation in 1948.

Citation went on to win the Triple Crown. Could the same be in store for Big Brown? The horse racing props market has the Derby champ at –350 to win the Preakness and +105 to complete the sweep. Todd Pletcher’s Harlem Rocker appears to be the best of the rest at Pimlico.

Check out this online racebook if you’re planning on betting on the Preakness Stakes. Read more on the Preakness Stakes and Big Brown’s chances of winning.

The big surprise amongst the Kentucky Derby contenders is Big Brown. He is undefeated in the three races that he’s run, winning all quite handily. But there is something that people should know before putting big bucks on Big Brown.

Big Brown is one of these new super-horses bred for performance, with little attention paid to durability. His sire, Boundary, did not race until April of his 3-year-old season. He was brilliant in his first two starts, and was done for the year. Boundary is by the late Danzig, who managed only three starts and three runaway victories in 1979 and 1980 before he broke down and was retired. Big Brown’s dam, Mien, finally raced in September of her 3-year-old season. After two races and a maiden win at Pimlico, she was done for good. See a pattern here?

Does Big Brown have one more Kentucky Derby in him? We’ll see.

They’re at the post… in two months. Until then, here are 10 things to keep in mind for betting the Kentucky Derby.

1. Churchill Downs is a dirt track. Look for horses that are good on dirt or across many surfaces.
2. It’s 1-1/4 miles, a long haul for unproven sprinters.
3. Of 32 odds-on favorites, 17 won the Derby and 11 finished second.
4. Only three fillies have won; the last was Winning Colors in 1988.
5. Winning Colors was also the only registered roan to win (she was actually gray).
6. Kentucky-bred horses have won 100 of 133 races.
7. Post positions No. 1 and No. 5 have each produced 12 champions.
8. Seven geldings have won, but only Funny Cide (2003) since 1920.
9. No winner since Iron Liege (1957) finished worse than fourth in his last Derby prep.
10. D. Wayne Lukas leads active trainers with four Derby wins – including Winning Colors.

The Triple Crown trail has already produced its first big-name 3-year-old. Pyro stepped up earlier this month in New Orleans to take the Grade III Risen Star Stakes. “He’s a tremendous horse,” trainer Steve Asmussen told the Daily Racing Form after Pyro displayed an eye-opening stretch drive without even getting the crop from jockey Shaun Bridgmohan. The victory was enough for Pyro to open as the favored horse in Pool 1 of the Derby Future Wager at 3-1.

But is Pyro the horse to gallop in the hoof steps of 2007 Eclipse winner Curlin? There is at least one commonality; Curlin took a back seat to Street Sense during most of last year’s thoroughbred season, and then beat a talented field at the Breeders’ Cup Classic to earn Horse of the Year honors. It could take a similarly gifted horse to outrun this year’s collection of horses – Z Fortune, War Pass and El Gato Malo among them.

As long as there have been horses there has been the racing of them. In fact it is one of the world’s most ancient sports dating back to the nomadic tribesmen of the Central Asian steppe. Genghis Khan, and later, the Russian Cossack warriors would not have been as successful in their empire spreading had it not been for the horse.
As early as 1140, the first of a long line of King Henrys tried to improve Hobby horses–pony-sized Irish horses–by importing Arab stallions to give them more speed and power. Henry’s Hobbys, as they were called, raced against horses owned by other nobility, lending the word “hobby” to mean a “costly pastime indulged in by the idle rich.”
Hundreds of years later, once the Americas had been conquered- with the aid of horses, and after the American Revolutionary War, more and more immigrants ventured into the Kentucky Territory where horse racing quickly became an institution.
At the 1775 Transylvania Convention, Daniel Boone introduced the first bill “to improve the breed of horses in the Kentucky territory.” Many Kentucky settlements–with the notable exception of Louisville which already had a race track–featured a Race Street, a straight stretch located just off the main thoroughfare and named after what went on there.
Back in England the Epsom Derby would start it’s famous history in 1780.
The War of 1812 took a heavy toll on horses. Afterwards, racing was slow to recover in the South and reformers shut it down entirely in the North and East.
On May 17, 1875, in front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, a field of 15 three-year-old horses contested the first Kentucky Derby, run at 1.5 miles, the same distance as the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris.

2009 may be the year for the Chinese when it comes to horse race betting. The announcement is seen as the beginning of horse race gambling on the Chinese mainland and would be a milestone since the Communist Party came into power in 1949.

The races would be held at the Orient Lucy City Racecourse in Wuhan in September of this year, according to a senior manager with the Orient Lucky Horse Group Cooperation. However, betting on the races would not be introduced on a trial basis until 2009.

“Initially about 250 horses from different jockey clubs around the country will participate in the races,” said the manager, “but betting can only be officially launched when the races draw at least 2,000 horses.”

An expert in the study of horserace betting, Qin Zunwen, said the business, once fully operational nationwide, could end up creating close to 3 million jobs a year.

Hubei Academy of Social Sciences revealed conducted a survey that 83.3% of Wuhan residents believed that the introduction of betting would have a positive social impact. 51% of those surveyed also said they were “interested” or “very interested” in gambling on the races.

The new “Super Dirt” track is being used in its first big race this week at the Golden Gate Fields in Berkley California. The new surface is one of three artificial tracks that are competing to become the dirt track of choice. The artificial surface is made up of the same silica that’s used in computer chips, then covered with a polymer coating. This provides a cushioning effect for the horses and jockeys, which will prevent countless injuries that occur every year on natural track surfaces.

It’s not required to spray down the tracks in dry conditions, which is estimated to save 30 million gallons of water per year. It’s able to filter water and never gets muddy. There are some issues with keeping it clean because certain organic materials will not break down in it. Besides that, it looks like it will be the surface of choice into the future.

There something powerful in the image of three crowns. It appears on several coats of arms, most notably the Tre Kronor of Sweden. So it follows that just about every sport has its Triple Crown of achievements. The rare champions who reach these lofty heights – Ted Williams, Manchester United, Jean-Claude Killy – become legends.

Thoroughbred racing has been waiting since 1978 for a horse to sweep its famous North American version of the Triple Crown. That’s the year Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont with jockey Steve Cauthen at the reins. Parity has taken over since then; for one horse to stand out from the expanding and talented crowd is increasingly difficult.

Only 11 horses have pulled off the Triple Crown since the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875. Seven of those winners came between 1930 and 1948; Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed won the Triple Crown in a five-year span. Those were the days.