#Nick Zito

Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law will try to win one of the signature races on the horse racing calendar when he leaves the starting gate on Saturday in the 2020 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Nicknamed the Mid-Summer Derby, the Travers ranks alongside the Triple Crown races as the most prestigious three-year-old events of the year.…

Keeneland Barn Notes: Basin Gets Final Prep for G2 Blue Grass Stakes (Trainer Steve Asmussen / Photo by Holly M. Smith) From the Keeneland Media Team: GRADE 1 WINNER BASIN WORKS FOR TOYOTA BLUE GRASS Toyota Blue Grass (G2) hopeful Basin, who races for Terry Green's Jackpot Farm, was the first horse to breeze over Keeneland's fast track Monday when…

The Bob Baffert-trained Gamine will try to establish herself as the top three-year-old filly in the country on Friday when she leaves the starting gate in the nation's top race for three-year-old fillies, the 2020 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. This daughter of Into Mischief has never trailed in any of her four career starts. She is coming off a…

Aboutthe only thing missing in Steve Asmussen's Hall of Fame career is a KentuckyDerby victory. That does not mean Las Vegas is shying away from him in 2022. With26 of his 3-year-olds among the betting choices at Circa Sports and CaesarsSportsbook at William Hill Nevada, Asmussen has nine more horses in the Derby futuresthan any other…

Horse of the Year honors could be on the line Saturday when the country's top dirt horses square off in North America's richest race, the 2020 Breeders' Cup Classic. Saturday's race features three of the top four horses in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Top Thoroughbred Poll: No. 1 Improbable, No. 2 Maximum Security and No. 4 Tom's…

All 13 of the Triple Crown winners in horse racing history earned that signature victory at Belmont Park, which hosts the 2021 Belmont Stakes on Saturday evening. But none was greater than Secretariat's run in 1973, as the Triple Crown winner smoked the field by 31 lengths and set both the Belmont Stakes and world record for a 1 1/2-mile race in a…

Churchill Downs has hosted the Kentucky Derby continuously since 1875, making it the longest-running major American sporting event, but last year it faced one of its most serious challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic. The race was postponed to September and no fans were allowed in attendance, but the Kentucky Derby 2021 brings back…

There are several horses with Triple Crown experience taking part in the 2022 Belmont Stakes on Saturday, but an inexperienced horse is the favorite. We the People, who has only raced four times in his career, is the 2-1 favorite in the 2022 Belmont Stakes odds. He is joined by Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (7-2) along with Churchill Downs…

Despite qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, trainer Chad Brown opted to hold Early Voting out of the first leg of the Triple Crown with designs on keeping him fresh for a run in the 2022 Preakness Stakes. It's a strategy that paid dividends for Brown in 2017, when he did the same with Cloud Computing, who went on to beat Classic Empire by a head.…

Trainer Todd Pletcher will try to win the Haskell Stakes for the fourth time when he sends out the up-and-coming Following Sea in the 2021 Haskell Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. The 54-year-old Pletcher, who will be inducted into racing's Hall of Fame next month, won the race in 2006 (Bluegrass Cat), '07 (Any Given Saturday)…

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gun Runner will start from one of the outside posts in Saturday's Pegasus World Cup Invitational, a less-than-ideal situation even for the top horse in the sport right now. Then again, at least he'll be out there. Gun Runner's connections wanted him in the inaugural edition of the Pegasus a year ago, only to have their…

After almost four months of waiting, the 2020 Kentucky Derby is finally ready to go off Saturday from historic Churchill Downs. When the 16-horse 2020 Kentucky Derby field is called to the post at 7:01 p.m. ET, a normally raucous Churchill Downs will be eerily quiet due to no spectators in the grandstands or infield. Favorites have lost 12 of the…

World Series Winner Now a Winner at Churchill Downs, Too (Alex Bregman, of the Houston Astros, gets a win at Churchill Downs / Coady Photography) From the Churchill Downs Media Team: Two-time World Series-winning third basemen Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros became a winning horse owner Wednesday at Churchill Downs when his family's 2-year-old…

At80-1, Rich Strike was not the longest shot ever to win the Kentucky Derby, buthe was the one whose shocking victory resonated the fastest. Theonly bigger betting surprise to win the race was Donerail, who carried odds of91-1 in 1913. Not only was that before the internet made communications fasterthan the blink of an eye, it was more than a…

Sometimes, in assessing stakes races, it is best to look at the history of the race and see if there is a dominant factor in that history. This weekend's racing features both the Champagne Stakes and the Miss Grillo Stakes, two Win and You're In races for the Breeders' Cup (coverage begins Saturday at 4 pm ET on NBC). For both races, you need to…

Todd Pletcher's favorite Mo Donegal ran down a furious pacesetting We the People at the start of the stretch to win the 154th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park. Irad Ortiz Jr. was in the irons for the winning ride. This is the fourth Belmont Stakes win for Pletcher and was his debut in the final leg of the Triple Crown. This is Donegal Racing's first…

The horses for the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby are listed in order of post position, with comments by Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert of The New York Times. The morning-line odds were set by Mike Battaglia of Churchill Downs. (Note: International Star, who was to start from the No. 12 post, was scratched Saturday morning with a hoof issue.…

Trainer Bob Baffert can set the record for wins by a trainer when he sends out the favored Taiba in the 2022 Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday at Parx. The 69-year-old Baffert has won the Pennsylvania Derby three times, tied with fellow Hall of Famers Woody Stephens and Nick Zito for the most ever. On Saturday, Baffert goes for No. 4 with Santa Anita…

Swiss Skydiver takes on a talented field of 12 colts in Saturday's $600000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes; Six fillies vie for Kentucky Oaks points in the $400000 Central Bank Ashland (G1) LEXINGTON, Ky. - Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver will try to put herself on the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail Saturday when she takes on males in a field of 13 horses…

1ST RACE - 2 3/8 miles, Steeplechase, 4YO and up, Allowance. Purse: $70000. No. Horse;Jockey;Trainer;Odds 1 Bandua;Jamie Bargary;Neil Morris;2-1 1A Project Two (IRE);Thomas Garner;Leslie Young;2-1 2 Ancient Times;Ross Geraghty;Archibald Kingsley;8-1 3 Who's Counting;Sean McDermott;Sean McDermott;6-1 4 Fightinirishtabit;Harrison Beswick;Richard…