Sports Then and Now

One of horse racing’s prestigious yearly events is just around the corner which is to be held on the third Saturday of the month of May, Preakness Stakes is hoping to deliver an encore after the exhilarating Kentucky Derby. Whether you are cheering up for the top favorites or you’re gunning for the ace rookie, the Preakness Stakes is surely a great entertainment which provides awesome betting experience.

Of course, this means you’ll be splurging out some money, so the big question here is whether you go home broke, or as a victor who turned his bet into a profit. While one cannot guarantee and hand out the exact winner for the race, the certainty to nudge you in the right directions will surely be helpful in your picking horses.

Studying the Field

Surely you have heard that knowledge is power, right? thus brace yourself and read up some past information that you can gather, because, above anything else, you are going to want to know what you are doing. Part of the information that you could gather is knowing all the prospective horses that could race this year’s horse racing at the Preakness Stakes.

This means that there might be some instance that the horse who won in the Kentucky Derby or some other top contenders will choose to sit out the Kentucky Derby and race with either Preakness or Belmont instead. By knowing this, you can pick out who to bet on earlier and plan out ahead of time.

Additionally, not all horses are the same, thus you should know how horses run on different tracks and how they perform in bad weather conditions and how they have fared against stiff competitions. Knowing these types of information will help you decide how to bet. Also, knowledge about horse pedigree, training, ownership, talent, jockeys, and running style plays a vital role in how and who you should bet on. Read the rest of this entry →

Graham Motion, the English born trainer of 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom could hardly contain his surprise after his outsider hosed up in the ‘Race for the Roses’ in front of a record crowd of over 160,000 at Churchill Downs last weekend. Amazingly it was the horse’s first run on dirt having previously run all his races on turf.

Having only his fourth start, the huge Chestnut colt was only rated at around 20/1 to win America’s most prestigious race, but he looked every bit the winner when he began his surge down the final stretch of the ten furlong race. “It’s not something I ever expected to do,” said Motion a few hours after he had won the race, but he confirmed that the horse had come out of the race in great shape and that he would take his chance in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in three weeks time, for which he’ll sure to be favourite in the Preakness Stakes Odds given the manner of his Derby victory. Success in that race of course will put him in line to win the highly coveted American Triple Crown of horse racing, should he take part in the Belmont Stakes two weeks later.

The win was also a huge bonus for jockey, John Velazquz, who got the ride after the one time race favorite Uncle Mo was withdrawn from the race. It was Velaquez’s first win in the ‘Derby’ in thirteen previous attempts and he now looks like staying on the horse for the Preakness. Read the rest of this entry →

The Grade One Preakness Stakes is known also as the “The Run for the Black Eyed Susans” due to the blanket of the Maryland State flower being traditionally draped over the winner’s neck at the end of the race.

The race is run annually over 9½ furlongs on a dirt track at the world famous Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland and is recognized as the second leg of the highly coveted American Triple Crown, which comprises of the Kentucky Derby (first leg) and Belmont Stakes (third leg). The attendances at the race are the second highest in the sport, with only the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs attracting more spectators, in 2010, 95,760 people attended but that was down from over 121,000 in 2007 following the banning of fans being able to bring their own beer. The race is open to colts and fillies, with the ‘boys’ having to carry 126lb and the girls 5lbs less.

The history of the race dates back to 1873 (2 years before the Kentucky Derby) when Pimlico introduced a new quality Stakes race for three year olds. It was called Preakness in honour of a colt of the same name, who was the winner of the feature race on the day that Pimlico first opened in 1870. The first ever race was won by My Sheba who won by 10 lengths in fantastic style which remained the most emphatic victory in the race until 2004 when Smarty Jones, who had won the Kentucky Derby two weeks previously, came home by 11 lengths. Smarty Jones was then aimed at the Belmont Stakes where he became an odds on favorite in the Belmont Stakes betting to win the race and thus the coveted Triple Crown, which had not been won since Affirmed achieved the feat in 1977. In heart breaking fashion however this hugely popular colt, whose presence at Belmont Park had attracted it’s biggest ever crowd, was to be denied in the ‘Belmont’ by the late run of 36/1 outsider Birdstone. Read the rest of this entry →