Kentucky Derby 2026

The Game Room
41

The Preakness is being held at Laurel Park, and now I just learned that the Belmont Stakes is going to be at Saratoga Springs for the third straight year…seriously, what is taking those renovations so long…this year’s Triple Crown certainly has an unusual vibe to it. Not to mention the fact that Golden Tempo is out and nobody seems particularly surprised or upset over this. I don’t have a problem with extending the time between the first and second jewels, but I really have to wonder why two weeks isn’t enough anymore. I have trouble understanding why animals specifically bred for racing can do less of it now than 151 years ago (and I’m not optimistic that the NBC team is going to be much help here). Anyplace I can look up stats, a serious discussion, some hard evidence?

Other than that, looks like another peaceful weekend. Always appreciate those.

42

I’m rooting for Taj Mahal. Another female trainer, jockey is her husband. Also. This is their local track, so she’s won there more than the big name trainers have run horses there.

43

As I understand it, it’s not really a renovation, it’s a complete replacement of the grandstand and rebuilding of the tracks. It is still slated to re-open in September, which appears to have been the original timing all along.

It does appear that there had, at one point, been discussion of running the Stakes at the new track this year, but that didn’t come to fruition.

44

I’ve always thought of it the same way that football and baseball players can’t perform at the same cadence as the old school guys with one twist. They are so hyper-specialized now and perform at such a high level, that they need extra time to recover. With the added twist for ponies that a sold winner is worth WAAAAY more at stud than he could ever win on the track, why take the risk of a life-ending injury. Golden Tempo is already worth many, many millions in stud fees if he never runs another race.

45

A complete Preakness result chart is here:

Finished 10-9-6-2-12. The chart shows prices and margins.

Good race. I had 1-2-9-12 in a box, but that didn’t happen. Still, upthread, I had comments on all the top finishers, so my selected horses to comment upon, did well.

1 Taj Mahal disappointed. He basically ran out of gas, as we say.

Oh well. That’s racing. Next stop, the Belmont Stakes.

46

Belmont looked like a relic of the 60s. I was last there in 2021 because the state was using it as a center for Covid shots and it was getting really decrepit.

47

Not a bad show, all things considered. Seeing that bald eagle was pretty cool. I kinda missed the party atmosphere of Pimlico, but quiet and polite has its appeal too (especially the way golf has gone in the past decade, but that’s another thread).

It would’ve been great for Taj Mahal to win, shatter another glass ceiling, and send the crowd home happy, but I got the nagging feeling that it just wasn’t meant to be. Trying to lead all the way rarely succeeds in the Triple Crown; chasers and closers are just too strong. I kinda wanted Ocelli to shed maiden status too (it’s weird that a maiden was the biggest money winner in the field), but that wasn’t in the cards either. Chad Summers came across as an honest, salt-of-the-earth guy who’s taken too much crap in his life, so I can be happy for him, at least. :slightly_smiling_face:

Oh, and I finally got an explanation for Great White’s mysterious pratfall two weeks ago. He has a very sensitive mouth, and when his jockey pulled back on the bit to steer him toward the gate, he reared up in pain, and then just lost his balance. So they switched to a softer bit, and there were no issues today. Seems to me that this is something that should’ve cropped up and gotten fixed way sooner, but there you go.

Since NBC mentioned the Ortiz brothers’ past involvement with cockfighting (from what I gather, they did nothing that was illegal at the time and the racing authorities found no grounds for punitive action), I’ll just lay it out right here. The idea that a fighting ring where several chickens enter every week and half of them die bloodily is somehow more morally repugnant than a plant where hundreds of chickens enter every week and all of them die bloodily is ridiculous. Unless you’re a strict vegetarian, don’t bother me with any stupid talk about clucker rights.

I’d really like to know how that beer foam painting thing works! :grin:

48

Earlier, we were discussing the differences between the track feed and the NBC (or other) networks’ feed. Here’s a photo I took at my local race book on Preakness Day, showing track feeds. It’s a little better than my previous photo:

Yes, it was taken from my seat at the bar, hence the beer tub at lower left. The TV screens are at the top.

On the left is Maryland Jockey Club at Laurel. Again, identifiers are across the top: track, race number, MTP, time of day, track conditions. On the left are current odds, and in this case, probables on doubles. On the bottom are professional selectors’ (Mailloux, Nicoletti, Rodman) selections on Race 11, though they will soon be replaced by results of previous races, or changes to upcoming ones.

On the right is the Rocky Mountain Turf Club, at Lethbridge, Alberta. It is a lot more basic than the Laurel feed, though it is just as informative: time of day, race number, MTP, track condition across the top. Current tote and probables down the left side. Changes on the bottom chyron.

This is what horseplayers need. The NBC (and others’) feeds are entertaining, with the dresses and the hats and the drinks and the rags-to-riches stories, but to play the horses knowingly, these kinds of track feeds that I have illustrated are absolutely essential.

And I couldn’t make it to my local track today, owing to other obligations. Dammit!

49

When Big Brown was running the Triple Crown races we decided to watch the Derby with the family instead of going to the track to catch the dissemenator video. We’d been watching him run all spring so we knew his habit of kind of laying back then coming up with an incredible burst of speed. NBC used its own announcer to call the race instead of the track’s caller and he entirely missed it.

The the horses were about halfway through the far turn when BB made his move and was passing the pack like they were standing still. The announcer, having tunnel vision, was just going on and on about the three leaders until he’d caught up with them.

Idiot.

50

That happens frequently.

51

For TV announcers, yes, but experienced race callers know to keep a bit of attention further back for the late closers who like to run that way.

52

As a “Man from UNCLE” fan in the 60s, I had to choose “Napoleon Solo” as my random pick to win the Preakness.

53

For the most part, yes, but there have been notable exceptions — like Mine That Bird in the 2009 Kentucky Derby.

Mine That Bird charged late from back in the field and was already leading by 3-4 lengths before the track announcer mentioned his name for the first time.

Mine That Bird had just about won the race before the track announcer first mentioned his name.

➜ https://youtu.be/MOU1_dYNLeA&t=1m54s ■

54

I’d forgotten that one.

NBC, again. Here’s the track announcer, who caught it moments after MTB had shouldered past Pioneer of the Nile.

55

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from decades of being a horse racing fan, it is this:

In route races, look for the closer who sits fifth or sixth going into the far turn, check whether he can come wide on the far turn; and if both factors are there, bet him.

That’s the kind of thing that track announcers ought to be looking at: who can sit pretty in the backstretch, and who can explode coming out of the far turn, with nobody ahead except empty track. In other words, announcers need to know how to read PPs, to figure out the closers, and to call them, regardless of the tote.

It doesn’t work in all cases, but it works often enough.

56

You are right about what the callers should be looking for; that’s why I groused at NBC’s above. There are so few routes in North American racing, though. The Triple Crown races are the longest those entered will run in their lives, ever, even if they aren’t quickly retired for breeding.

57

Golden Tempo takes the Belmont in another come-from-far-behind victory. Back to the real Belmont track next year.

58

By far the weakest coverage of horse racing’s annual extravaganza. Probably a combination of factors…borrowed venue, small field, very little carryover drama, too much politicking behind the scenes. It’s been a strange, awkward time for the Triple Crown, and I’m just glad it’s returning to its proper, thoroughly modernized places in 2027. Hopefully we’ll get that Kentucky-to-Preakness interval worked out by then. (What’s the obstacle here again?)

It didn’t help that Fox split everything up into 3 segments and didn’t even bother to put the name of the event on the DVR listing so I couldn’t even search for it. It’s no secret that football, baseball, hockey, and now soccer are their games and they’re not big on the Sport of Kings. They also don’t have an NBC-style Sports Report, meaning that they had to yammer some stuff about the Yankees completely out of the blue. Secretariat got mentioned in passing twice, which is as sure an indicator of “We have nothing to talk about!” as there is. Hated the music choices. Seriously, blech. They actually freaking played the “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” song during the Ortiz brothers segment, a song that makes MacArthur Park sound like China Roses. The biggest positive with the Fox crew, honestly, is that they can acknowledge the presence of raindrops without going into full-on Defcon 2 freakout mode, which you know NBC would’ve totally done.

Golden Tempo charged to victory at the end, and ESPN will most certainly be buzzing at a once-unknown female trainer becoming an overnight superstar. Of course there’s going to be speculation if he would have won the Triple Crown, but the trainer knows the horse more than anyone, and there have been way, way too many heartbreaks (timeless classic! :grin:) for me to accept it as a given.

59

I only found the coverage on FOX about 6:30, because I was slow to figure out I was on the wrong network.

But I was happy to see Golden Tempo win.

60

Yes, covering a Triple Crown horse race is not the strong suit of Fox. I turned the coverage on briefly on Saturday; the first face I saw was Dave Portnoy. That had me reaching for the remote.