Kentucky Derby 2025

[Bullitt]

@Spoons

I’d let our horse racing fans know that we have a field.

Warning — lengthy post!

I’m obviously a late comer to this thread but you can count me in as a big fan, if not so much for thoroughbred racing I am a big fan of the TC races and I watch them every year for the last 50 years.

My first TC race was when ABC’s Wide World of Sports (who remembers that?) televised that year’s Kentucky Derby. I was just a young stallion of 11 years old then.

There was big talk about one horse, and also the fact that there hadn’t been a winner of the TC since Citation in 1948. A 25 year drought! When Secretariat won the Run for the Roses as expected, and he was accelerating throughout the entire race — INCREDIBLE! — it was so exciting that I had to watch the other two.

At the Preakness Secretariat broke poorly and was at the back of the field. But at the end of the first turn he put the pedal to the metal and shot ahead to first place as if his turbocharger kicked in. FANTASTIC!

And then there was the Belmont. The long, Big Sandy. Wow, just, WOW!

I’ve been hooked ever since and I’ve watched them all, every year, ever since.

Needless to say I’m a huge fan of Secretariat and I think he is the greatest ever.

Thanks for letting me relive my youth that summer of being 11 years old!

I usually don’t watch any of the undercard races, and I’ve never placed any wagers. I’ve been to the races just once in my life, here locally near San Francisco at a track that has since been plowed over. They didn’t pave paradise and put in a parking lot, they put in condominiums. That was the old Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo (➜ Bay Meadows Racetrack - Wikipedia ■ ) which last had a race on 17 August 2008, almost exactly 17 years ago today. I went with a friend who knew how to read the Racing Form (IIRC that’s what it was called) and it was fun. Lots of good info in that little newspaper free handout. Or maybe it cost $1 or $2, I don’t remember now.

I’d love to go attend the TC races in person but I hear those tickets are very expensive. My wife’s eyesight isn’t great so being in the infield wouldn’t be much fun for her. I guess we’ll continue watching it on TV, unless I can find a cost effective way to attend. We’ve been married 23 years now and I long ago converted her into a fan of the TC races. If we could go we’d even splurge on matching outfits and my wife would get a beautiful hat too. That would be fun and would be a great bucket list experience!

@Railer13

Supposedly every horse in the Kentucky Derby field today is descended from Secretariat.

Wow, didn’t know that! We watched it, and I’m sure they covered it on the telecast, but we usually FF past the fluff stuff. I should still have it on YouTube TV so I might go back and look for that. Thanks for the article @Railer13. I’ll be sure to read it! (➜ https://www.sportingnews.com/us/horse-racing/news/secretariat-related-every-horse-kentucky-derby-field/f9857e2dad1881077892f639 ■ )

@DKW

and something about a woman’s poncho being see-through or whatever

If I go back to watch it I’ll keep an eye out for this, LOL.

@DKW

One thing I sometimes like to do is go back and look over the celebrity predictions

One thing that I really like is when they show the entire race with a pointer to the eventual winner so you can watch his entire run. Remember Calvin Borel on Rachel Alexandria and then the spectacular run on the rail on Mine That Bird in 2009? Calvin Borail!

@Spoons

Yes, those are fun, and as a horseplayer of at least four decades, I can tell that they are playing based on names they like, or lucky numbers, or what colours the jockey is wearing, or whatever. Definitely amusing, but not great sources of information.

If you can get hold of a real Racing Form

That’s like my coworker friends who make their NFL picks based on which QB is the cutest or which teams have the better colors.

About the real Racing Form, I imagine there’d be a link to that? It might require a subscription, I’m guessing.

@Mark_Finn

With the Preakness on tonight (Saturday) - with no chance of a Triple Crown winner, is anyone else here interested?

I’m always interested, every year! Remember the very sad story of Barbaro in 2006? Yes he won the Kentucky Derby, but in the Preakness he broke down and broke 3 bones in his right hind leg, but the bones broke in more than 20 places. That eventually healed but he developed a case of laminitis and had to be euthanized a few months steer the race.

Jeez, I don’t know why I went there. But yes I’ll watch each race even though there might not be a TC hopeful in the running.

@DKW

Steve Coburn’s tirade?

Steve Coburn’s tirade? What a joke! What a crybaby.
➜ https://youtu.be/fnrUF8I1N44?si=fO4vqxcgDDwOLwve ■ And then we had not just American Pharoah, but also Justify.

@DKW

Maybe it just needs Belmont Park?

Yes it definitely needs The Big Sandy. That’s a classic track.

[Mark_Finn]

RIP Ron Turcotte - Secretariat’s jockey during his Triple Crown win.

Ron Turcotte, Who Rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown, Dies at 84 - The New York Times

[Bullitt]

Wow. Thanks for that.

[Spoons]

Sorry, @Bullitt , I missed this earlier:

@Bullitt

About the real Racing Form, I imagine there’d be a link to that? It might require a subscription, I’m guessing.

Yes to both questions: The Daily Racing Form has its own website:

https://www.drf.com/

There are a variety of products that it sells, from full subscriptions to partial ones, or to past performances with selections and commentary. Too many for me to say, really; I haven’t fully explored all their offerings. But you can still get a lot out of the freebies, such as a columnist who is writing about today’s feature race at a particular track.

One site that I find useful is Equibase:

Equibase | Horse Racing | Horse Racing Entries | Horse Racing Results | Past...

I use it to find out what tracks are running on a particular day, what races are occurring at a particular track that day (entries), and the horses that are running in every race at that track. Selections and morning lines are supplied. Later, after the race, Equibase publishes complete results charts. Online and printable past performances are available by subscription, but I have found that Equibase’s free offerings, together with the paper program I can get at the track, serve me well.

Hope this answers your questions, but if you have any more, let me know. And again, apologies for not getting to these questions sooner.

[Bullitt]

@Spoons

Yes to both questions: The Daily Racing Form has its own website:

https://www.drf.com/

Thanks for that @Spoons . I’ve flagged it to look at that for next year’s TC races.

[DKW]

Um, you do know what a poncho is, right? Here, this’ll help. If I were to seek out a copy of the Kentucky Derby broadcast, I’d need something a helluva lot more enticing than that.

As for Coburn, the thing that struck me is how jaw-droppingly ignorant it was. There are ALWAYS ringers in the Belmont Stakes! Always! Triple Crown winners are great precisely because they can overcome that! Still, this is the only time I remember one of these spewages being caught on camera, so I decided to just roll my eyes and move on.

[Bullitt]

@DKW

Um, you do know what a poncho is, right? Here, this’ll help. If I were to seek out a copy of the Kentucky Derby broadcast, I’d need something a helluva lot more enticing than that.

I have no idea what you’re referring to. My post was long and multi faceted. What are you referring to? What? Wear a rain poncho to stand in the infield? And how would that help my wife’s eyesight?

Can you spell it out for me?

[DKW]

Okay, so there was:

@DKW

I will say this: Of all the annual events NBC runs, the Triple Crown is the one where the announce crew gets the least cracked up about a little rain. There were maybe two or three “can’t dampen our spirits” bits and something about a woman’s poncho being see-through or whatever, but that was it

And then you were like:

@Bullitt

If I go back to watch it I’ll keep an eye out for this, LOL.

Your words, not mine. Just trying to help.