Horse Race Betting and Handicapping Articles

2017 Jockey Club Gold Cup Expert Picks with Odds and Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 10/5/2017

Outside of the Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup, the Jockey Club Gold Cup might be my favorite race. The history of the race is just amazing. The legendary Man o' War won the race in 1919. Triple Crown winners Gallant Fox, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Citation, and Affirmed all won the race. Greats like Cigar and John Henry won it. Curlin and Skip Away each won it twice. Kelso, impossibly, won it five straight times. This is a truly great race, and as the last major prep race for the Breeders' Cup Classic it has had added importance over the last couple of decades. If you care about the history of horse racing then you care about the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Santa Anita September Stakes Day Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/28/2017

We've already looked at the three Grade 1 stakes Belmont has on offer on Saturday. That's an amazing card, but it can't hold a candle to the crazy card Santa Anita has on that day with five Grade 1s. Santa Anita is a shortish drive from Del Mar where the Breeders' Cup is, so many horses are there already to get ready for racing's biggest day. Sadly, we aren't seeing the race we could - Arrogate, Gun Runner, Collected and West Coast are all at the track but not racing until the Classic.

Belmont Turf Classic Day Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/28/2017

Saturday is a great day to be a horse racing fan, with amazing cards packed with Grade 1 races at both Belmont and Santa Anita. Just having a bunch of races like that is great, but with horses jockeying for positions in the Breeders' Cup, and making their last starts before that festival, this is a hugely important weekend of racing. We'll look at Santa Anita in another article, but let's start with Belmont. Three Grade 1s are on the card. It starts with the Vosburgh, a six-furlong sprint. Then it's the Beldame, for fillies and mares eyeing the Distaff. And finally we have the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, a mile and a half prep that is a key Breeders' Cup Turf prep. Here's a look at how each shapes up:

2017 Pennsylvania Derby Expert Picks with Odds and Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/21/2017

We haven't talked about the three-year-old class of thoroughbreds since the Travers Stakes in late August, and the class is generally so underwhelming that I really wasn't expecting to talk about them again so soon. The Pennsylvania Derby came up surprisingly strong, though, and it's the most interesting race of this weekend. There is certainly room for a star to emerge from this class, and favored West Coast is perhaps the most likely horse to do so. He certainly doesn't get a walkover here, though, so if he wins he will have proven a little more about what he is.

2017 Woodbine Mile Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2017

The Woodbine Mile is one of the top one-mile turf races in North America - and one of the few that is internationally significant. It is run for a purse of $1 million. Don't get too excited, though - that's Canadian dollars. The race has only been run since 1988, but it has had some very significant winners. The legendary champion filly and Canadian Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly won in 1991. So did Canadian Triple Crown winners Izvestia and Peteski.

2017 Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 9/6/2017

The Kentucky Downs meet is a truly unique event that could only take place in Kentucky. The meet, which features only turf races, takes place over just five racing days in early September each year. And it's not your typical turf racing, either. It's like a piece of Europe has been relocated to Kentucky, with an irregularly shaped track and all.

2017 Travers Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/23/2017

I've been following horse racing obsessively for well over 30 years now, and I don't remember too many three-year-old classes quite like this one. It's the end of August, and you could make a case for a dozen different horses to win the Eclipse Award for the top horse in the division. Heck, right now you can make a pretty good argument that no horse is particularly deserving.

2017 Pacific Classic Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/17/2017

Let's be totally, obviously clear - the Pacific Classic, taking place this Saturday at Del Mar, may have eight horses entered, but it's only about one: Arrogate. It could have been about so much more, but trainer Jerry Hollendorfer again took the path of least resistance with his great filly Songbird, and Bob Baffert logically didn't run his very good Cupid against his great Arrogate. So, the race is only about whether Arrogate can look like the Arrogate we have been ready to build statues for, or if the last, disastrous outing was more than just a strange fluke.

2017 Arlington Million Day Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/10/2017

The eyes of the horse racing world shift to Arlington Park on Saturday for the one day of the calendar year that that track is actually relevant these days. Arlington cards three massive Grade 1 turf races, each of which will play an impact on the turf racing scene through the summer and right up to the Breeders' Cup. The Arlington Million is the biggest prize, but the Beverly D for fillies and mares and the Secretariat for three-year-olds are also very significant events. And, of course, we are going to preview all three.

2017 Whitney Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/2/2017

The Saratoga race meet is North America's best, and if you don't agree you are wrong. It got rolling last weekend with a solid slate of stakes capped by a wildly-disappointing Jim Dandy in which both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners completely flopped. Things really get serious now, though, with the Whitney Stakes - one of the great jewels of the summer racing calendar. The 1-1/8 mile race is a massive test for older horses and now is a Win and You're In race for the Breeders' Cup Classic, so it is more important than ever. And with a purse of $1.2 million there is some monetary intrigue as well.

Summer Horse Racing Offers Some Amazing Events
by Trevor Whenham - 6/12/2017

The Triple Crown is in the books. Sadly it was not a stellar year. It was one of those years which, just a couple of years from now, you will really struggle to remember who won any of the races. It happens, though, and there is no reason to be depressed about it. We are heading into the summer, and that means that we are nearing perhaps the greatest stretch for a sport that has few down times. Across the country through July and August there are some great meets and some stellar races. We'll see enough epic racing this summer to forget that the Triple Crown ever happened.

2017 Louisiana Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/29/2017

Man, do we ever need a good, honest Kentucky Derby prep race. This prep season just hasn't been very good. Too many disappointing performances from favorites or seeming stars. Too many wins by horses that are either just plain underwhelming or talented but tough to judge. Normally by this stage of things - as the big 100-point prep races get started and horses make their last pre-Derby starts - we know who the best horses are, and we have a sense of how the big race is shaping up.

2017 Florida Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/29/2017

The Florida Derby is on a pretty good run of producing Kentucky Derby winners in recent years. Four of the last 11 Florida Derby winners have gone on to wear the roses. Barbaro started the stretch of success in 2006 before tragedy struck in the Preakness. Two years later Big Brown dominated the Derby and Preakness before forgetting to show up for the Belmont. There was a break until 2013 when Orb was a somewhat surprising Kentucky Derby winner.

2017 Dubai World Cup Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/22/2017

The second-richest horse race in the world occurs on Saturday morning, our time, in Dubai. It was the richest until February when the first edition of the Pegasus World Cup had a purse $2 million larger than the $10 million on the line in Dubai. You can be sure that the powers that be in Dubai aren't happy about that, and we should see a purse increase soon as long as the Pegasus goes ahead again next year.

2017 UAE Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/22/2017

The Dubai World Cup, featuring the great Arrogate taking on an international cast of challengers, is the main event on Saturday in the desert. One of the highlights of the undercard, though, is the UAE Derby. It's a $2 million race, so it's going to be interesting no matter what. And it is a rare three year old race that allows horses from both the northern and southern hemisphere to race each other - southern hemisphere three year olds are six months or so older than northern hemisphere three year olds and are considered fours year old in North America.

2017 Spiral Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/22/2017

We really shouldn't care about the Spiral Stakes. It's a Kentucky Derby prep race run on a synthetic surface at a third-tier track. The chances are very good it won't be particularly relevant. There are, though, two reasons we have to pay attention. First, it offers 50 points to the winners, so the horse that wins this race will be able to start in the Derby of they choose to.

2017 Rebel Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/16/2017

Above all else I want just one thing from the Rebel Stakes this year - clarity. The road to the Kentucky Derby this year has been a total mess so far. Every time a horse seems like he is about to make a statement, he flops. And then there is Mastery - the ultimate reminder of why this is both the best and worst sport in the world. His win in the San Felipe was incredible. As he crossed the finish line I knew without question who I was betting on in the Derby. He was a man among boys. And then, a few strides later, he broke down and his career ended. So now we are back to not knowing much of anything about anything again.

2017 San Felipe Stakes Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/9/2017

The next stop on the road to the Kentucky Derby brings us to Santa Anita on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET for the San Felipe Stakes. This race, a key prep for the Santa Anita Derby, has produced several Triple Crown race winners over the years - California Chrome most recently, along with Point Given, Fusaichi Pegasus, Sunday Silence and Triple Crown winner Affirmed. Pioneerof the Nile, sire of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, was also a San Felipe winner.

2017 Tampa Bay Derby Picks with Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/9/2017

The Tampa Bay Derby hasn't traditionally been a major Triple Crown prep race, though in recent years the stature has raised somewhat as it has been helped by the points awarded in the new Kentucky Derby qualifying system. Suddenly the race has become more attractive because winning it all but secures you a spot in the Derby field, and finishing second gives you a shot at a spot as well.

2017 Southwest Stakes Picks by Expert Horse Racing Handicapper
by Trevor Whenham - 2/17/2017

The Southwest Stakes, a Kentucky Derby prep race run this Monday at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, is primarily known as a race that Smarty Jones won on his way to a near-Triple Crown victory in 2004. Other future greats like Lawyer Ron and Smoke Glacken, both Eclipse Award champions, have won it as well. In recent years it hasn't produced top-level contenders. Last year's winner, Suddenbreakingnews, was a talented colt who was wildly frustrating because he never reached his potential.