2013 Kentucky Derby Disclosure

Java's War, Normandy Invasion, Orb, and Overanalyze.

2013 Kentucky Oaks Disclosure

Midnight Lucky, Dreaming of Julia

2012 Derby Disclosure

Take Charge Indy, Dullahan, and Bodemeister. Liason is a longshot.

EDIT
It was I'll Have Another, Bodemeister, and Dullahan. A strange run by Bodemeister, outpacing the sprinter Trinniberg (9) early on.

2012 Kentucky Oaks Disclosure

Eden's Moon and Karlovy Vary. Grace Hall and Broadway's Alibi are favorites.

EDIT
Rosie Napravnik on Believe You Can was the first female jockey to win the Oaks!

Road to Derby 2012

As pointed out in 2011, the road to the Kentucky Derby follows a couple of high-profile races through the Derby prep season. Some of the major races are:

• The Florida Derby (YT) was on March 31. In an upset, Take Charge Indy with Calvin Borel beat Revelon and the favorite, Union Rags with Julien Leparoux.
• The Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds is April 1 (YT, HRN). Hero of Order beats Mark Valeski at 109-1 odds.
• The Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park is April 7 (HRN).
• The Illinois Derby at Hawthorne is April 7 (HRN).
• The Wood Memorial States at Aqueduct is on April 7 (HRN)
• The Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn is on April 14.
• The Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland is April 14.

Apparently everyone is on Twitter these days: Julien Leparoux, CJ Sports, Thoroughbred Racing, KY Derby Contenders, TwinSpires, Derby Fun. The C-J also has its racing blog and racing headlines.

2011 Derby Disclosure

Midnight Interlude, Dialed In, and Nehro. With three wins out of the last four Derbies, it's hard not to go with Calvin Borel on Twice the Appeal.

EDIT
It was Animal Kingdom: Nehro placed.

2011 Kentucky Oaks Disclosure

Zazu, along with Lilacs and Lace and Kathmanblu.

EDIT
Zazu showed.

Road to the Kentucky Derby

The links in last year's Derby post are mostly still useful this year. But in the months leading up to Derby, there are a number of important Triple Crown prep races that test and prepare the 2011 Kentucky Derby contenders This year, Uncle Mo was an early favorite and the first to get his own Wikipedia page.

Before the colts are three, they're two years old. The Breeder's Cup Juvenile is held in November the year before. Uncle Mo won in 2010 (video); Street Sense had won in 2006 before winning the Kentucky Derby the following year. Also, the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt is awarded as part of the Eclipse Awards (which also has an award for fillies); Uncle Mo won in 2010; Street Sense had won in 2006.

The major prep races leading up to the Kentucky Derby begin at the end of March and run through April; all are 9 furlongs on dirt, except the Blue Grass Stakes, which is now run on synthetic polytrack.

• The Wood Memorial Stakes (top three) is held in mid-April at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York. In 2011, Uncle Mo was heavily favored to win, but in a big upset showed while Toby's Corner won and Arthur's Tale placed (video). In the past, 11 winners have gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, four of whom captured the Triple Crown.
• The Arkansas Derby (top three) is held in April at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 2011, Archarcharch won (video).
• The Blue Grass Stakes (top three) is held at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky. Brilliant Speed won in 2011 (video).
• The Florida Derby (top three) is held at the end of March or the beginning of April. In 2011, Dialed In won (video).
• The Louisiana Derby (top three) is held in early March at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2011, Pants on Fire won (video).
• The Santa Anita Derby (top three) is held in April at Santa Anita Park in California north of Los Angeles. The winner in 2011 was Midnight Interlude (video).
• The Illinois Derby (top three) is held in April at Hawthorne outside Chicago, Illinois. Joe Vann won in 2011 (video).

Looking at the videos, Nehro had good performances at the Louisiana Derby and Arkansas Derby, which would seem to bode well for the long, 10-furlong Kentucky Derby.

Other notable prep races include the Tropical Park Derby (January, 2011), Fountain of Youth Stakes(March), Tampa Bay Derby (March), and Holy Bull Stakes (April) in Florida; the San Felipe Stakes (March) in California; and the Southwest Stakes (February) and Rebel Stakes (March) in Arkansas.

2010 Kentucky Derby

In 2010, the top three finishers were Super Saver, Ice Box, and Paddy O'Prado.

Derby 2010 Disclosure

Super Saver, along with Stately Victor, Paddy O'Prado, and Lookin at Lucky. It's hard not to put a wager on Devil May Care, as well.

EDIT
TwinSpires is swamped, leaving me just across the board on Super Saver and Lookin at Lucky, with Stately Victor to win. =/

Oaks 2010 Disclosure

Blind Luck, along with Beautician and Tidal Pool.

2010 Kentucky Derby: Linkage

The Kentucky Derby is the first Saturday in May, which this year happens to fall on my birthday. That won't happen again until 2021.

The Louisville Courier-Journal of course has extensive coverage of the Kentucky Derby, including the 2010 Derby Briefing Book and the Horse Racing and local events blogs. The C-J's most-requested Derby recipes was originally published back in 1997: make sure to pick up a gallon of bourbon.

Events follow a schedule, and most everything in April and May are scheduled around Derby and the events scheduled around Derby. Thunder over Louisville, the fireworks and air show, is two weeks before Derby. BBC Brew Day is the week before Derby. The Great Steamboat Race is the Wednesday before Derby; the next day is the parade, and Oaks is on Friday.

Hunter S. Thompson wrote about the 1970 Derby (sort of) in "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", and William Faulkner wrote on the '55 Derby in "Kentucky. May. Saturday." (h/t JH). Faulkner opens that piece by penning a paean to Kentucky as fine as you'll find. I'm queuing up the 1969 film of Faulkner's last book.

Anyhow, this post was intended to be about coverage of the race itself. The official sites are Oaks, Kentucky Derby, and Churchill Downs. Churchill owns TwinSpires.com for online wagering.

The New York Times' The Rail blog covers the Triple Crown. The 2009 edition was begun on April 20, and featured a blackberry-bourbon mint julep recipe. Steven D. Levitt often reveals his Derby picks at the Freakonomics blog (he was pretty hilariously wrong in 2009). The Baltimore Sun's horse coverage is more geared towards the Preakness. But it makes me think about how fantastic "The Wire" was.

Blood Horse has coverage of Triple Crown Mania, and CBS Sports and ESPN have horse racing feeds. Many horse racing sites like the Daily Racing Form are oriented towards subscribers, although there are some blogs ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ). Wikipedia has a list of the winners back to Aristides.

The Kentucky Derby YouTube channel has including replay back to 2002. Here's the 2009 Derby, 2008 Derby and Oaks, 2007 Derby, 2006 Derby, and 2005 Derby, as well as things like Welcome to Louisville and Making your Mint Julep. I moved to Louisville in 2004, right after Smarty Jones won; so the first Derby I really paid attention to was won by Giacomo.

Cycling, Luck, Preakness...

Last Friday was Bike-to-Work Day. I always ride my bike to work anyway; I live in Old Louisville and work downtown, and most often a two-mile bike ride in the morning is very pleasant. But I support cycling to work in general, so I registered for the event.

One of the official rides into downtown ran from Iroquois Park to 4th Street Live, which is basically along my usual route. So I decided to join the cyclists as they passed by, but since the official ride departed at 7:30am, while I leave for work a few minutes before 9am, the roads were empty of bike-to-work riders by the time I left. There were events at lunchtime at 4SL, but I forgot to go until it was nearly over.

Later that evening, I got an email from the bike-to-work organizers: "Congratulations!" it said, "Your name was drawn by Terry Meiners to win a Trek 7000 commuter bikes for registering to Bike-to-Work Day!"

I was completely dumbfounded.

The next day, I went on a cycling trip to Mike Linnig's out in southwestern Jefferson County. We took the long route around the Riverwalk, had a flat tire, a detour, and a mild crash, and made much slower time than I had hoped. We got there around mid-afternoon, and I had a plate of fried gator and turtle soup to recharge. My wife drove us home because we had evening plans, and I made a few quick wagers on the Preakness before we headed out to dinner at Rocky's acrosss the river in Indiana.

We had a great table with fantastic views of the city; it was a great time to go, and they had a TV with the race on. We watched the Preakness, and I said: "OMG! I think I hit an exacta!" When I got home, I checked my tickets: not only did I hit an exacta, I hit the trifecta! I won about $150 on that race.

Of course, he whom Fortune's wheel lifts high will soon be cast down, so I was wary of coming unluck. But on the bike ride, my front tire hit a patch of mud at the bottom of a hill, and I flew over my handlebars and slid along the muddy path upside for a couple of feet. I was unharmed but for skinning my elbow, but it's at least a little bad luck to leaven what good fortune I had this weekend, aha.

EDIT

Fried gator and turtle soup at Mike Linnig's...

2009 Derby Disclosure

Dunkirk and Pioneerof The Nile, and either Friesan Fire or Mr. Hot Stuff.

EDIT

Pioneerof The Nile placed, but watching Mine that Bird run from the back after getting slammed out of the gate was some great racing.

Oaks 2009 Disclosure

Justwhistledixie scratched, so I have to go with Rachel Alexander, the crazily popular favorite.

For exotics, I'm thinking Stone Legacy, Nan, and Flying Spur.

EDIT

W00t! It's not been a good day for picking horses, but the Rachel Alexander-Stone Legacy exacta has me up for the day.

I'm a runner

Today is my birthday. I am now 30.

I'm at home watching the horseraces on TV; I have a growler of BBC American Pale Ale, some Ommegang Rare Vos, and my wife is bringing home Mexican food for dinner (I associate Mexican food with horseraces for some reason; I think its coz of Sante Fe Cafe around the corner from Churchill Downs). My sister and maybe some friends are coming over later, we're gonne watch "Logan's Run" and "The Wicker Man" after the Oaks.

That's the way for a great birthday.