With about 7 weeks to go before
Kentucky Derby betting, some contenders are emerging and online betting enthusiasts have to be on the look out for pretenders.
Just like in every single year, there are runners that look promising but get hurt on the Triple Crown Trail and this year along with Algorithms and Out of Bounds already hurt, Bob Baffert’s student Fed Biz has hit the pine after winning a mile allowance in under 1:35 at Santa Anita.
Baffert, the consummate horsemen, could not pinpoint what was exactly wrong but he knows that there is a hind-end issue and that is enough to stop on the sophomore.
With March Madness in full throttle right now on the
online sportsbooks, it’s easy to see how horse trainers and basketball coaches deal with some of the same problems.
In hoops, you have to treat players differently. Some respond to being called on the carpet day in and day out when mistakes are made and some go into a shell when singled out because of a mental error or a super bad decision.
Trainers have to be a combination of good cop, bad cop, big brother, and maybe most importantly, part the reincarnation of Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, who won three times the first Saturday in May, saddled 4 Preakness winners and 6 Belmont stakes heroes.
Racehorses have tiny ankles that must carry flesh of 1,000 pounds or more at speeds of over 40 miles per hour and cover a distance of ground. During the grueling spring, these animals are pushed to win 3 races in 5 weeks while shipping to different locales in the process.
Having a game plan is key to success in May and mapping out the absolute correct path for your runner is imperial.
As of now the top contenders are representing each coast as Union Rags is doing his thing back East and Creative Cause is proving he is the top prospect in the West.
Cause has never run a bad race. He broke on the scene winning the debut with a brilliant 98 Beyer, took a Grade 1 at 2 and was hung wide in Hansen’s BC Juvenile victory. The runner got a perfect prep in February then was inching away from his rivals in the San Felipe when recording a 98 Beyer and maybe more importantly, galloped out strongly well in front after they had cross the wire.
The blood is there for Creative Cause to be a star. His sire Giant’s Causeway earned over $3 million and at one point in his racing career won 5 straight Group 1 races to be named European Horse of the Year.
Creative Cause’s dam herself won over a million dollars winning a number of stakes including a Grade 1.
Union Rags mind you is no rags to riches story. He cost nearly $400K, is out of a winning dam that is kin to a near $400,000 earner and you can build a case he was best when he just failed to catch Hansen BC Day.
That was his only lost, it came by a head, and he got revenge in his 2012 opener coming away in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth with a 98 Beyer.
If these two stay intact, the Derby should be a show stopper and know that a number of runners that ran in the BC Juvenile have gone on to thrive since.
Other players, lesser lights, that could mature quickly are Mark Valeski, Bodemeiser and El Padrino.
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