I played it really down to the wire here, but here are my bets for today's Jerome Stakes. Ultimately, I'm sticking with the other handicappers with Flexibility for the win here, but I also really like Let Me Go First for win or place since he just broke his maiden at this distance. I really liked Vorticity when I was looking over pedigrees and race stats last night, but I'm just not sure he can manage the distance, so as risky as it may be not to place any bet on him, I didn't. I also think that the number 1 and 2 horses, Silent Assassin and In Equality, respectively, might surprise us here, and their odds are good enough that it would be a decent payout if they did. Bird of Trey was my wild card. Attached is my very bare (with no conformation investigation since it's tough to find pictures early on in these guys' careers) contenders evaluation! ~Gallant Vixen
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Yesterday's running of the Los Alamitos Futurity marks the last Road to the Derby race of 2015, with the next up race being the 1 mile 70 yard Jerome Stakes on January 2nd. It's crazy to think of all that we saw in racing in 2015- a Triple Crown winner for the first time in 37 years, for one. We also got to meet a very talented crop of 3 year olds, and I only look forward to what else we'll see from horses like Frosted, Keen Ice, and Dortmund in the year to come. Alas, all good things must come to an end eventually, so now we can just look to the future and hope it will be as bright, or brighter!
Right now, there are already 31 horses on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. The top 10 (and also the only ones with 10 or more Derby "points") are:
My top 10 favorite names alone:
Personally, I don't place too much stock in these very early leaderboard stats. If we look back to the Kentucky Derby's leaderboard from the end of 2014, the top 3 horses were El Kabeir (scratched from the Derby), International Star (scratched from the Derby), and Upstart (finished last in the Derby). But surely our future 2016 Derby hero is on that list somewhere! So far, I'm especially intrigued by:
It remains to be seen whether some of the other colts, many of whom just have some places or shows under their belts so far, will live up to their promising pedigrees. As soon as I see that the Jerome Stakes entries are in, I'll post my thoughts. Although this is the next race I hope to cover, the races that seem to be better indicators of potential Derby success will be later in the spring. The first significant Road to the Derby race that I'll cover will probably be the Holy Bull on January 18th. What do you think of the so-called class of '16 so far? Do you have any favorites yet? Who has the best names? ~Gallant Vixen |
About Gallant VixenNew lawyer with a degree in equine studies and a penchant for handicapping. Archives
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