Ultra Sports Bet

Winning Colors, the spectacular filly who won the Kentucky Derby in 1988, was euthanized yesterday at the age of 23. She was a completely one-dimensional horse who had to have the lead, but she had ridiculous speed to burn. She took the lead early and kept it the whole way around, and there are few horses out there that could pull that off, never mind against the opposite, stronger gender. I remember thinking that D. Wayne Lukas was nuts with his prediction of how the race would play out, but he was pretty much exactly right. Truly memorable, and against …read more

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I am the worst Kentucky Derby handicapper in the world. It’s not that I don’t put the time into it. I start following the two year olds in the summer and get more and more obsessed as the first Saturday in May draws near. My problem is that I fall in love with a horse or two at some point in the process, and then odds or value are irrelevant to me. Sometimes I get lucky, like I did last year with Curlin. More often I don’t, with a long list of also-rans having my love and affection through the …read more

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There is a whole lot of interesting horse racing going this weekend, as the Triple Crown trail reaches a new level and some golden oldies come back in action. I’ll be watching it all, but one horse that I am especially excited to see is Grasshopper (on the rail in the Travers when he wasn’t quite good enough against Street Sense). He was terrible last time out in the Super Derby, but he is well rested and quite a bit older now, and I am very curious to see if he is better off for it. He runs in the …read more

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This is the last article until the Super Bowl kicks off that won’t be about that game. There is all sorts of good content on tap.
Check out this article. It’s one I wrote today about the effect of superstars on the performance of NBA teams against the spread. I’m biased, but I think it is kind of interesting.

The focus of the racing world is mostly on the road to the Derby, but there are other things going on. This is Asiatic Boy, and he is making me giddy. He is based in Dubai, and he is spectacular. He won the …read more

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There isn’t a sport I love more than horse racing. As we get closer to the Triple Crown and the race for one of the 20 starting spots heats up we’ll spend more time looking at the sport of kings. I want to take a few minutes now, though, to look at some intriguing races this weekend. We’re in the early days of the year, and high profile drama is hard to find, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good stuff going on.
Six year old Einstein is making his season debut in an allowance on Friday. This is an …read more

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If you don’t know the story of The Green Monkey, you should. He sold last year as a two year old for a ridiculous $16 million. He finally got to the track late this summer after more than a year of delays. He should have stayed in the barn. In three races he has burned a lot of money up as solid favorite each time because he has yet to be competitive. Here’s a good write-up of the situation and all its ridiculousness.

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The second race at Churchill Downs today was as standard and unexciting as a race can be – a $7,500 Claiming race at six furlongs with a dozen horses. Every so often, though, a forgettable race can turn into something that can seduce the imagination of horseplayers forever.
The favorite, Wrzeszcz (easily the hardest to pronounce name in the country), was never a factor. Neither were the second or third choice. A 40-1 shot somehow found the lead at the start and never gave it up. A 45-1 horse made a ridiculous move all the way from last to second at …read more

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The Breeders’ Cup is now five days gone, and it’s time to revisit my selections. I don’t need to see how I did (I know that intimately by now), but rather how I feel about my picks and the process behind them. The BC is a major crapshoot, so even the best handicapping in the world isn’t always going to be effective and profitable. You need to make sure that you make decisions that you would be happy to make again.First, some background. My betting strategy was ultimately built around pursuing exotics based on my top three horses in each …read more

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My beloved Curlin was absolutely dominant in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (and a major steal at 4/1 to boot) and wrapped up Horse of the Year, and my beloved Michigan rolled to an easy win and a cover of a huge spread against Minnesota. I may forget it sometimes, but life is pretty darned good.
You can catch the highlights of the race here.

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It is truly ugly in New Jersey for the Breeders’ Cup. There are unconfirmed reports that Sheik Mohammed has ordered an ark to be built. When doing your final handicapping for the big day there’s really only one thing to remember: DON’T OVERTHINK IT. The weather is a mess, but it is just one factor that makes handicapping these races as difficult as it is. Just have fun. The horses that won today were, for the most part, good enough to win on a dry track.

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