Against all odds, the watershed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is now law. Here’s what comes next and what it could mean for horseplayers.
Betting
Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting begins Saturday with an 11-race card chock-full of stakes races, with six on the card, five of them graded.
The Orange County track is putting on quite a show during the 11-day winter thoroughbred meeting that ends Sunday, in part because of Golden Gate Fields’ closure for COVID-19.
The Bob Baffert-trained colt tested positive for scopolamine after winning the Santa Anita Derby, but the case was quietly dismissed and he went on to sweep the Triple Crown.
Both reported zero fatalities at recent meets, a sharp contrast to last year when critics were literally at the gates of both facilities after a spate of horse deaths.
The Classic features one of the most accomplished fields assembled for the 1¼-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, with eight of the 10 entrants having earned more than $1 million.
In a stunning reversal, Ahmed Zayat filed for bankruptcy protection this week, just five years after American Pharoah, a colt he bred and owned, captured the Triple Crown,
Betting the Kentucky Derby at Las Vegas racebooks Saturday was a hit-or-miss proposition, with different wagering schemes and payoff caps in place at various resorts.
The 3-5 morning line favorite in the delayed Derby has all the attributes you look for in a major league racehorse: natural speed, quick acceleration and proven stamina.
The buzz is building among racing fans over Tiz the Law, the expected heavy favorite in the 146th running of the race on Sept. 5 and a potential superstar.
Nevada gaming regulators are considering an 11th-hour intervention that would allow the state’s racebooks to have betting on this year’s Kentucky Derby.
It’s rare to see a 3-year-old colt dominate to the degree that Tiz the Law has in four races this year, including last weekend’s Travers Stakes, the Belmont Stakes and Florida Derby.
Saturday’s $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, usually the next big thing for 3-year-olds after the Triple Crown, this year lands smack dab in the middle of the series.
Many players fail to follow up their paper handicapping with a visual review of a horse’s previous race or races. That puts them at a big disadvantage.
Several tracks this week imposed new policies prohibiting jockeys from riding at other racetracks as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19.