Horse Race Betting and Handicapping Articles

2016 San Felipe Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/10/2016

The San Felipe Stakes is a great race - probably my favorite one of this pre-main event round of Kentucky Derby prep races. For starters, it's on a great card - the undercard of the Big Cap. Second, it is a big prep for the Santa Anita Derby and a great measure of where the West Coast runners are at. West Coast horses have been hugely important the last several years in the Derby picture.

2016 Tampa Bay Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/10/2016

It took much longer than it should have for this race to become a key step on the road to the Kentucky Derby. After all, there isn't much to complain about when it comes to training and races horses in sunny Florida over the winter. It's certainly more attractive than a lot of places north of there to spend the winter.

2016 Gotham Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/3/2016

There are two things we are beginning to know with certainty about the Gotham Stakes, the major prep for the Wood Memorial Stakes, which takes place on Saturday, March 5 at 4:50 p.m. ET at Aqueduct Park in New York. The first is that the weather is unpredictable and often lousy. Racing at its best is a warm-weather sport. Aqueduct in the summer is an armpit of a place, but the late winter certainly doesn't help it. The second is that the race ultimately isn't likely to be as important in the road to the Derby as it probably should be.

2016 Fountain of Youth Expert Picks for the Road to the Kentucky Derby
by Trevor Whenham - 2/26/2016

The road to the Kentucky Derby runs through Florida every year. It only makes sense - it's too darned cold for real racing in the northeast over the winter, so smart trainers head to the reliably-warm environs of Gulfstream Park to wait for spring to arrive. This race, the key prep for the Florida Derby on April 2, has been a successful stepping stone to glory in Kentucky and beyond over the years. Just three years ago Orb was the winner both of the Fountain of Youth and the Kentucky Derby.

2016 Kentucky Derby Futures Odds and Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 1/19/2016

The Kentucky Derby, held annually on the first Saturday in May, is still a long, long way off. Though last year's hero American Pharoah was well-known and very highly-regarded at this time last year, it's just as common that the eventual Derby winner is either unknown or well out of the spotlight in January. That's what makes looking at Derby futures at this time of year so interesting. We know so little about these horses - most of which haven't even run as three year olds yet - that we can only make barely educated guesses about what will happen.

Santa Anita Opening Day Expert Picks and Handicapping Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/24/2015

A one-month fall meet opens at Saturday with a big race card on Saturday. Featured are six stakes races, including five that are Grade 1. Needless to say, at the beginning of October the Breeders' Cup implications are massive in these races. We should take a look at them, shouldn't we?

Horse Racing: Belmont Opening Weekend and Season Preview
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2015

It's a strange time of year in the world of high-level horse racing. Everything is focused on the Breeders' Cup, but that festival of racing is still almost two months away. As we head into the big fall meets, then, we are looking for two things - we want clarity in the biggest races, and we want all the top horses to make it to race day healthy and ready.

2015 Santa Anita Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 4/2/2015

For quite a while last decade the Santa Anita Derby was barely relevant in the Kentucky Derby picture. Synthetic tracks, questionable California-based horses and bad luck led to hard times for the race. Lately, though, it is back in all its glory. In the last three years both California Chrome and I’ll Have Another won this race before taking the first two legs of the Triple Crown. Earlier, greats like Point Given, A.P. Indy, Sunday Silence, Winning Colors, Triple Crown winner Affirmed, and others have used this race as a springboard for their massive success.

2015 Blue Grass Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 4/2/2015

The Blue Grass Stakes, a major Kentucky Derby prep race run on Saturday at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky, was essentially irrelevant from 2007 until this year. Over that time it was run on the synthetic surface that Keeneland installed. Bettors learned the hard way that form on that surface didn’t mean anything at all when transferred to the dirt of the Kentucky Derby.

2015 Wood Memorial Picks with Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 4/2/2015

The Wood Memorial Stakes, which has been run since 1925 and takes place at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York, has been a great stepping stone to Triple Crown glory over the years. Eleven different horses have won this race and gone on to win the Kentucky Derby. Four of them won the Triple Crown. Secretariat was only third in the Wood in 1973 but also went on to Triple Crown glory.

2015 Louisiana Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/26/2015

If you are going to go to the races at Fair Grounds on Saturday and you want to stay all day, you will want to work on your stamina in advance. Get lots of rest. Drink plenty of fluids. Pace yourself at the bar. And bring lots of money. The Louisiana Derby is part of an absolutely ridiculous 14-race card. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

2015 Florida Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/25/2015

Now things get serious on the Triple Crown trail. We have seen some fantastic prep races so far, and this is as good a group of horses — at least at the top end — as we have seen for years. Now we get to start seeing all of those horses run their final prep race before the big one — the Kentucky Derby. We don’t have one of the true superstars here in the Florida Derby, but we have one heck of a good rivalry and a few intriguing challengers to give those two chase. It should be a great race.

2015 Spiral Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/19/2015

The road to the Triple Crown heads to the center of the thoroughbred universe for the first time of significance this year with this weekend’s biggest prep race taking place in Kentucky. It’s not under the famous twin spires of Churchill Downs, though — the Spiral Stakes takes place at Turfway Park, which is actually almost in Cincinnati despite still being in Kentucky.

2015 Rebel Stakes Picks with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/11/2015

We have been spoiled by some very good Kentucky Derby prep races so far this year, and the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on Saturday promises to be another. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to be the epic, historical race that it was promising to be. For the first time since 1975, we were on track to see a showdown between the two-year-old champion filly and colt. Take Charge Brandi was injured on Tuesday morning, though, and will not only miss this race but also the Kentucky Oaks — or maybe the Derby if she had done really well here. American Pharoah is still here, though, so it is still a race to look forward to.

2015 Tampa Bay Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/5/2015

Trainers and owners are finally starting to realize what should have been evident for a long time — training and racing in Florida in early March is much nicer than doing so in most other places at that time of year. The Tampa Bay Derby has been around for a long time, but it’s only within the last decade that it has begun to raise its profile. Street Sense won both this race and the Kentucky Derby in 2007, and Super Saver was third in this race in 2010 before winning in Kentucky. This year, the field has set up to be one of the more impressive prep races of this early stage of the Triple Crown trail.

2015 Gotham Stakes Picks, Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/5/2015

The biggest threat in the Gotham Stakes could be the weather. Conditions are always a potential concern in this race — it is run in New York in early March, after all. This year, though, the weather has created a nightmare at Aqueduct. They have cancelled racing on Thursday — the 14th card lost to the weather this winter. In a year when we have already seen two prep races at other tracks postponed because of weather, let’s hope that Mother Nature lets us see what should be a pretty interesting Gotham.

2015 San Felipe Stakes Picks, Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/5/2015

The San Felipe Stakes, which will be run on Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita, is a historic and important race. Started in 1935, and run annually since 1945, the race is best known for being a prep for Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner, in 1978. It has also produced Classic winners Sunday Silence, Fusaichi Pegasus, Point Given and Pioneerof the Nile in recent years. Last year, California Chrome was an impressive winner of this race en route to his success in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. So, winning this race not only an important prep for the Santa Anita Derby but also a fertile ground for producing Kentucky Derby contenders.

2015 Fountain of Youth Picks, Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 2/18/2015

Florida has always been a major stage for preparing for the Kentucky Derby, and this is the key race that sets the stage for the Florida Derby. In recent years this race has been very important to the Triple Crown picture. In 2013 Orb won both this race and the Derby. The year before Union Rags won this race and the Belmont Stakes. Other stars to win this race have included 1995 Derby and Belmont winner Thunder Gulch, 1987 Belmont winner Bet Twice, and 1979 Derby and Preakness winner Spectacular Bid. In other words, this is a race that matters.

2015 Risen Star Picks, Odds and Expert Horse Racing Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 2/18/2015

This is the time of year when the race to the Triple Crown really gets exciting, We have already seen some big prep races — especially in California — but with the Risen Star and the Fountain of Youth things really get fired up. After this weekend we still won’t know who is going to win the Derby, or even which horses are going to be favorites, but we will know more than we have up until now — and we’ll likely see some really great racing at the same time.

Road to the Kentucky Derby: Risen Star & Fountain of Youth Preview
by Raphael Esparza - 2/17/2015

It’s that time of year to start looking ahead to the Kentucky Derby, and this Saturday, Feb. 22, we have not one race but two major races. Around the country tracks are being prepared for what is typically their big race day, and this weekend in New Orleans and Florida these tracks will be planning for some big crowds. Some of these prep races are more significant than others, but who knows what horse could be the next big name or the next Kentucky Derby winner.