Belmont Stakes Preview (Part 1)

This is part 1 of what will a 3 part preview for the stakes races leading up to the Belmont Stakes preview. This first post will the 2yo races (later on tonight it will be the rest of the races sans Belmont).


3rd Race - Belmont Park - Thursday, June 4th, 2015
STAKES. 5 1/2 Furlongs Dirt. Purse $250,000. Astoria S. FOR FILLIES TWO YEARS OLD. By subscription of $250 each which should accompany the nomination; $1,250 to pass the entry box and an additional $1,250 to start. For horses not originally nominated, a supplemental payment of $3,750 along with the entry and starting fees may be made at any time prior to the closing of entries. The guaranteed purse of $250,000 will be divided accordingly $130,000 to the winner, $50,000 to second, $30,000 to third, $15,000 to fourth, $10,000 to fifth, $6,500 to sixth, $4,500 to seventh and $4,000 to eighth. 120 lbs. Non winners of a race other than claiming or starter allowed 3 lbs.; Maidens, 5 lbs. A trophy will be presented to the winning owner. Closed Saturday, May 23, 2015 with 22 Nominations. (01:52 PM) (6)
PP Horse A/S M/E Wgt Jockey Trainer
1 One Minute 2 F L 120 Velazquez John R. Asmussen Steven M.
2 Moment Is Right 2 F L 120 Rosario Joel Ward Wesley A.
3 La Nina 2 F L 115 Cruz Angel Lawrence, II James L.
4 Decked Out 2 F L 120 Desormeaux Kent J. Desormeaux J. Keith
5 Tonasah 2 F L 115 Castellano Javier Pletcher Todd A.
6 Little Cherie 2 F L 120 Smith Mike E. Maker Michael J.

Moment Is Right is cross-entered into the Tremont, but will go here. La Nina is still a maiden, Tonasah will be making her career debut. Moment Is Right beat the boys in her lone start and should be the horse to beat here.

Top three:

Moment is Right
Decked Out
One Minute

4th Race - Belmont Park - Friday, June 5th, 2015
STAKES. 5 1/2 Furlongs Dirt. Purse $250,000. Tremont S.. FOR TWO YEAR OLDS. By subscription of $250 each which should accompany the nomination; $1,250 to pass the entry box and an additional $1,250 to start. For horses not originally nominated, a supplemental payment of $3,750 along with the entry and startingfees may be made at any time prior to the closing of entries. The guaranteed purse of $250,000 will be divided accordingly $130,000 to the winner, $50,000 to second, $30,000 to third, $15,000 to fourth, $10,000 to fifth, $6,500 to sixth, $4,500 to seventhand $4,000 to eighth. 121 lbs. Non winners of a race other than claiming or starter allowed 3 lbs.; Maidens, 5 lbs. A trophy will be presented to the winning owner. Closed Saturday, May 23, 2015 with 21 Original Nominations and 1 Supplement. (02:24 PM) (10)
PP Horse A/S M/E Wgt Jockey Trainer
1 Cocked And Loaded 2 C L 121 Ortiz, Jr. Irad Rivelli Larry
2 The Love Monkey 2 C 116 Rice Taylor B. Rice Kevin
3 Swipe 2 C L 116 Desormeaux Kent J. Desormeaux J. Keith
4 Cat Tree 2 C L 121 Parker Deshawn L. Kobiskie Dane
5 Banree 2 F L 118 Hernandez Rafael Manuel Ward Wesley A.
6 Sweet Steppin 2 C L 118 Perez Xavier Salzman, Jr. John E.
7 Uncle Vinny 2 C L 121 Velazquez John R. Pletcher Todd A.
8 Dr. Shane 2 C 121 Franco Manuel Esler Nicholas
9 Moment Is Right 2 F L 118 Rosario Joel Ward Wesley A.
10 Paynes Prairie 2 C L 116 Castellano Javier Asmussen Steven M.

There are several maidens in this race. Moment is Right will remain against her own sex in tomorrow's Astoria. Leaning towards Cat Tree for this race, but don't count out Uncle Vinny either.

Top three:

Cat Tree
Uncle Vinny
Banree

Belmont Stakes Races Preview Schedule

The following races will be previewed on Furlong Drive leading up to my Belmont preview on Thursday.

Astoria and Tremont
New York, Just a Game and Manhattan
Easy Goer
Woody Stephens and True North
Acorn
Brooklyn

the Met Mile and Phipps will be previewed on Road to the Breeders' Cup as they are WAYI races.

Changes coming to the blog

Over the past several months, my love of horse racing admittedly had waned a tiny bit. Although it has picked up since April. I'm honestly indifferent about American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown. This has lead to lack of production on the blog. I had been been thinking of doing several things to it from giving it a complete overhaul (something that I haven't done in some time) to keep it fresh, to closing it down completely. The changes that I'm going to be announcing now though are about in the middle and hopefully will give the blog some new life as we close out the 2015 Triple Crown and head to the summer racing months.

* Furlongs and Horses is defunct. I will still be doing videos, but they will be Road to the Breeders' Cup Previews and Recaps only. 

* All pedigree posts are going to be moved to Pedigrees United, however posts that are on here will remain archived on here.

* New look! I've decided to use one of the Blogger templates for now. I hope that everyone is okay with that as I'm not a great graphic designer.

* All posts from here on out will be history, editorial (although not that often), race preview/race recap, or sale oriented posts.

I hope that everyone enjoys these changes and respects my decisions because of them.

Thanks,

Rachel

Why each Belmont contender can or can not beat American Pharoah

Even though we have several weeks to go before the Belmont gates open and we know for sure weather or not American Pharoah can be the first horse since Affirmed to win the Triple Crown. However, today's post is about the horses who are going to try to spoil that try. Here is a look at the horses (who according to Horse Racing Nation and DRF) are heading to this year's Belmont.

Rain doesn't bother Pharoah

In 2009, Pioneerof the Nile exited his Derby runner-up finish full of confidence that he could upset Mine That Bird in the Preakness. However, his connections where disappointed with an uptrack finish to Rachel Alexandra. Three years later Bodemeister was once again run down by I'll Have Another in the final furlong. This year though it was different for the Zayats. Already redeemed by Pioneerof the Nile's son American Pharoah's win in the Derby, step two would be the Preakness.

4 horses (including former ownershipmate Mr. Z) would come out of the Derby to take on Pharoah. Also in the race would be a horse owned by Roy & Gretchen Jackson who where trying to put the memories of Barbaro's injury behind them and one owned by Charles Fipke whose long shots had run well in Derbies past (Divining Rod and Tale of Verve respectively). All eight horses though had to overcome a sudden downpour in rain just minutes before they broke from the gate.

American Pharoah took the lead early and it actually looked like he was going to be swallowed up by the field. Somehow, someway he pulled away from them to win by the second largest margin since Smarty Jones won the Preakness 11 years ago.



Tale of Verve (Tale of Ekati) was second and Divining Rod (Tapit) was third.

So now we head to the most difficult race of AP's career. A mile and a half stands between him and immortality. He will face a field of fresh horses plus Tale of Verve whose dam is 1/2 sisters with the dam of 2 G1 winners at Belmont AND whose broodmare sire is the same as his great-grandfather on his sire's side (Unbridled).

The Belmont hasn't been the kindest to his connections. Bob Baffert has been 1 for 4 with his Preakness winners in winning the Belmont (Point Given being his only winner), Victor Espinoza 0 for 2 with Derby and Preakness winners (the first jockey to go for a TC try 3 times), Zayats are also 0 for 2 including a heartbreaking loss to Union Rags with the horse with the most heart Paynter.

Some other thoughts:

I was wrong about Tale of Verve... should have known with his trainer.
Firing Line was no surprise
Mr. Z.... yeah
Danzig Moon... not as bad as Upstart still strike two on me
Rod's female family helped him there (turf horses sometimes love a muddy track)

Preakness preview

Can American Pharoah add the Black Eyed Susans to his Roses? Lets take a look at this year's Preakness.

The American King

Pioneerof the Nile, Nehro and Bodemeister. Those three have two things in common, they all finished in second their respective Kentucky Derbys (to Mine That Bird, Animal Kingdom and I'll Have Another respecitvely) and all where owned by Ahmed Zagat. So close... yet so far. That was until a son of the first horse mentioned showed up last year, breaking his maiden in a G1 race (Del Mar Futurity) and followed it up with a win in the Front Runner. That was more then enough to give American Pharoah the 2yo championship.

The pressure was now on as only 1 horse since 2007 who was a Champ at 2 gone on to win the Kentucky Derby the following year (Street Sense being the other). Today, "Pharoah" became the King of the Derby with his win. Firing Line (Line of David) was second and Dortmund (Big Brown) was third. It was the third win for Victor Espinoza who likely join the Hall of Fame next year with the two locks Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra and 4th for Bob Baffert.



Now we move onto the Preakness where Pharoah will likely face the undefeated Competitive Edge (Super Saver) who won for fun today in the Pat Day Mile.

Some other thoughts:

* Boy did FL stink up the place.
* Frosted ran better then I thought
* Carpe Diem was a little disappointing, but not as disappointing as Upstart (but looks like the latter has an excuse)
* Danzig Moon is going to win the Queen's Plate (hopefully)
* Mr. Z... wasn't last like I thought he might have been

Overall not really sure what to think of this year's Derby. Maybe as the week goes on and settles in I will be able to think more about it.

Worth the Wait

According Equibase, Kerwin Clark has been riding since before 1976 (that's as far as their records go) with over 2,000 wins. Before this past April, zero of them where in a G1 stakes. That changed when the Majesticperfection filly Lovely Maria won the Ashland. Today at the age of 56, Kerwin became the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks when he and Maria crossed the wire first. Shook Up was second and Maria's stablemate I'm a Chatterbox was third.



This marks the 3rd Oaks win for her trainer Larry Jones and the former Gov of KY, Brereton Jones (no relation). Like with Proud Spell and Believe You Can's sire Proud Citizen, Majesticperfection stands at Gov Jones' farm Airdrie Stud.

Kentucky Derby Preview

All of the hard work is done... now 20 horses will head to the starting gate on Saturday and race for about 2 minutes for the most prestigious race for 3yo's in the US. Here is the field for this year's Kentucky Derby!

Kentucky Oaks Preview

My Oaks preview this year won't be that in depth as in years past. However I really wanted to do a preview on this race. So here is the field for the 2015 Oaks!

Derby Preview schedule

I will be out of town next week due to a last minute trip to NYC. However that doesn't mean I won't be doing Derby coverage this year. The plan is this:

Hiatus

The blog will be on hiatus until later in the month. I will be back in time for the Derby.

Weekend Picks

Didn't get a chance to do videos like I had planned :(. However, that doesn't mean that I don't have picks for this weekend which is the first weekend of the year with several great G1 and G2 races. So here we go:

Dubai videos

With this upcoming Saturday being World Cup night, I thought it would be a good time announce that yes there will be videos for this year's races (I had been wanting to do one for awhile, but illness got in the way).

Please note that even though there will be videos, I am only going to be doing 4 of them on the World Cup, Dubai Turf (formally Duty Free), Sheema and Godolphin Mile. Reason being is that those are the big four races I feel. The Golden Shaheen and UAE Derby might be getting a special vid, but not going to be planning that.

So check back all day Friday for the vids!

Farewell Chief

Not many can say that they defeated Secretariat. Prove Out and Onion are two who can, and they shared a trainer... Allen Jerkens. Today "The Giant Killer"/"Chief" passed away at the age of 85. His son Jimmy is a trainer in his own right with last year's Travers winner V.E. Day and the runner up Wicked Strong in his stable currently and the trainer became a "Giant Killer" himself when Artie Schiller won the BC Mile.

Even with beating possibly the greatest horse in the second half of the 20th Century twice, my favorite Jerkens horse did his best running against NY breds. His name was Spite the Devil, a son of Devil His Due who Allen also trained and was bred by Elisabeth Jerkens... Allen's wife. Spite was G2 placed at 2 and G3 winner at 3. However he is most known for 2002 Sleepy Hollow runner up finish where he gave the winner everything that he had. The next year that winner Funny Cide became America's sweetheart with his Derby and Preakness wins.

Spite the Devil would win the Empire Classic twice. Here is his first win in 2004:



Condolences to his family