The Bob Baffert-trained colt ran a strong race to end the “curse of Apollo,” but his favorable trip over the “sloppy” racetrack means that questions remain to be answered before he can be considered one of the great ones.
Mike Brunker
Columnist: Horse racing
Email: mbrunker@reviewjournal.com
Phone: (702) 383-4656
Mike Brunker is an assistant city editor working with reporters covering land use and environment, health care and immigration. He also writes a weekly horse racing column. Before joining the Review-Journal in August 2016, Brunker worked in various reporting and editing capacities for NBCNews.com, msnbc.com and the San Francisco Examiner.
The 3-1 favorite should get a favorable pace scenario, but can he last 1 1/4 miles? See what horse racing columnist Mike Brunker, the #RJhorseracing handicappers and guest experts Bob Ike, Patrick McQuiggan and Ellis Star think.
Narrowing the field to a manageable number of horses that you can return to when post positions are drawn for the Run for the Roses on Tuesday will give you an edge over handicappers who are grappling with a 20-horse field.
Speed figures are a great tool, but they are not a reliable crutch when it comes to deciphering a race as complicated and unique as the Run for the Roses.
A U.S. Bureau of Land Management official from Utah who previously worked as an environmental protection specialist at Naval Air Station Fallon has been named a BLM district manager in Northern Nevada.
The last two prep races for the Run for the Roses – the Arkansas Derby and Lexington Stakes – will be run on Saturday, leaving handicappers a mere three weeks to make sense of what has been an exhilarating run up to the main event.
If we didn’t see the Kentucky Derby winner last week, then we almost certainly will on Saturday when the Wood Memorial, the Blue Grass Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby lure most of the top guns for the Run for the Roses.
The Group 2 UAE Derby — part of a stellar Dubai World Cup card — and the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park make for a challenging handicapping challenge, part of which involves getting up early Saturday.
With just six weeks until the Kentucky Derby, give or take a day, most horses being aimed for the race are going to run just once more to try to secure a spot in the starting gates.
The Bob Baffert-trained colt has been spectacular in the first two races of his career, but his lack of seasoning raises questions about whether he’ll be ready for the moving mosh pit that is the Kentucky Derby.
If there’s a void in your otherwise Gatsby-esque existence, fear not: Polo as it’s meant to be played is coming to Las Vegas.
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