Zarkava. Jeez… These guys can sure name their horses eh?

The last big weekend of horse betting action before the Breeders’ Cup on October 24th and 25th saw Zarkava win the $5.5 million dollar Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris.

He upset a couple of horses that were expected to head to the 2008 Breeders’ Cup in Soldier of Fortune and Duke of Marmalade. Youmzain finished second in the race while Soldier of Fortune and Its Gino dead-heated for third and fourth. Duke of Marmalade finished seventh.

Zarkava became the first filly to win the Arc since Urban Sea won in 1993. ”We had no worries,” said trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre. ”She is certainly the best horse I have ever trained.”

Zarkava is not expected to race again this year.

Elsewhere, Bittel Road is looking good heading to the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf after winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Woodford Reserve Bourbon Stakes. Bittel Road is now three for three in victories and could be a serious contender in the Juvenile. The horse went off at even money in the Bourbon and won by a head under Rajiv Maragh, who substituted for John Velazquez who was hurt.

”That was an exceptional finish,” Maragh said.

Also, Vineyard Haven was totally dominant in winning the $400,000…

This is it, the very race that will determine whether we’ll have the first Triple Crown winner for quite a long time or not.

It’s on this Saturday, as Big Brown will try to capture this year’s Triple Crown title in the 140th Belmont Stakes. The colt certainly didn’t look good heading for Belmont Park this weekend after discovering that crack on his left front hoof, but after the colt managed to get the No.1 post position for the final leg of the Triple Crown trail, people will probably ride his bandwagon again.

With 2-5 odds to win at Belmont, Big Brown will come out of the No.1 position after winning the Derby from the last gate and winning the Preakness from the middle. Jockey Kent Desormeaux should be more than happy of the fact that he’ll have the inside lane for a change, coming out of the post that produced the most Belmont winners since 1905.

”Absolutely, because it’s an easier trip,” Kent Desormeaux said, referring to the lane he will have to guide Big Brown on for the 2008 Belmont Stakes. ”I would be able to just guide and glide. Now, I’m going to have to jockey for position. He’s so fast away from the gate, though, the race might be over in 40 yards.”

While Desormeaux just might be a little too cocky in their attempt to win the 2008 Triple Crown series title, he should be aware that the rest of the pack would love to spoil their plans of a sweep.

With 50-1 odds, Guadalcanal will come out of post No.2 while Macho Again…

Let’s take a break from all these basketball conversations and talk about horse racing for a change.

The Grade 1, $1 million 2008 Florida Derby Race at Gulfstream Park will run on March 29, 2008 featuring the top three-year-old thoroughbreds of the country. A preparatory race for the coming 2008 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3, this should tell ya’ll who you should bet on once the Triple Crown series begins this year.

Colts came out of their races doing quite well with the likes of Big Brown. Big Brown, the undefeated and as yet unchallenged three-year-old sensation who took South Florida by storm after cruising to a 12 ¾ length allowance victory at Gulfstream Park is all set to win the $1 million purse back there.

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr, who trains Big Brown for the IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr., said ”we got to thinking and drinking last night and by the time we were done, we decided the 2008 Florida Derby Race at Gulfstream Park would be the best option.”

Veteran jockey Kent Desormeaux will ride Big Brown for the Florida Derby, even though Desormeaux has been scheduled to ride on the Dubai World Cup card that same day.

Also in the race is Bea Oxenberg’s three-year-old Hey Byrn, who reaffirmed his credentials as a potential Kentucky Derby (G1) contender at Gulfstream Park when he drew off to win a…

Because hey, these horses, as great as their owners say they are, still have to poo right?

And yeah, the 2007 Belmont Stakes is this Saturday as SEVEN of the top horses of the nation will meet at Belmont Park in New York to decide the final leg of this year’s race for the Triple Crown.

First, we have Imawildandcrazyguy at post position no.1. Trained by William Kaplan, Imawildandcrazyguy will be ridden by Mark Guidry as they look for a photo finish to end the 2007 Triple Crown series. The only problem for Imawildandcrazyguy is, his owner REALLY is a wild and crazy guy for getting his horse compete with the big boys THIS EARLY. The horse had only two wins of 12 lifetime starts, with his only victories coming last year in maiden and allowance events at Calder. The horse just kept on losing since his wild and crazy owner stepped into tougher competition.

Tiago will come from post position no.2 and yeah, he’s still a 100-1 longshot despite being the little brother of Giacomo. Tiago is simply not good enough. Yeah sure, he won the Santa Anita Derby but puh-lease, the horse was competing with a weaker field then. That was apparent when the horse lost to a grand total of six horses at the 2007 Kentucky Derby.

At post position no.3, we have the heavy favorite Curlin. Yeah sure, Curlin’s…

The 2007 Kentucky Derby, merely days away.

Yep, from all the huge sporting events happening right now, from the 2007 NBA AND NHL Playoffs, the coming De La Hoya – Mayweather Jr. fight and the UEFA Champions League final, here I am writing about horses. He he… Well, the race is on Saturday and yeah, I’m going to bring it to you anyway like a horny 60-year-old drunk bastard.

20 horses will come out of the gates for the 133rd Kentucky Derby. How about that, they’ve been doing this thing for more than a goddamn century already. And yep, these horses are ready to claim what the late Barbaro left for them. The question now is, who will be that one horse who will be fast enough to be Barbaro’s successor? (Yeah, I’m referring to the one who’ll win the 2007 Kentucky Derby Saturday in case you didn’t get all those cheesy clichés…)

Let’s start with gates 1-5 shall we? We have Sedgefield (1), Curlin (2), Zanjero (3), Storm in May (4) and Imawildandcrazyguy (5). Out of these five, Curlin has the best odds at 7/2 to win the damn thing. Curlin is yet to taste defeat, no wonder the horse is coming in strong at the 2007 Kentucky Derby. The rest looks like roadkill to me. Well, Imawildandcrazyguy STILL has one unique name anyway so my hat’s off to him.

Gates 6-10 have Cowtown Cat (6), Street Sense (7), Hard Spun (8), Liquidity (9) and Teuflesberg (10). Now this is more competitive than what we have in gates 1-5. Cowtown Cat is a horse from the stable of my boy, Todd Pletcher and you just know this horse will be doing well come raceday. Cowtown has 20/1 odds to win the Kentucky Derby.

But in this group, we also have Street Sense, a 4/1 favorite on Saturday. This baby just came out of nowhere. It was the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile where he had a surprising 10-length romp over other two-year-old thoroughbreds dubbed as ”the best in their class.” Street Sense sure made it clear who’s number one. Hard Spun is a good 15/1 pick too but just because he will be ridden by a guy with a stupid name like Mario Pino…

A new Triple Crown entry named Bernardini went away to steal the Preakness Stakes victory last Saturday. But even with that kind of feat, he’s still not the most talked about horse in town.

In fact, the limelight remained and never left the favorite Barbaro who was pulled out of the race after suffering a near-fatal injury. If not for the presence of mind of his jockey, Edgar Prado, yes he could have met his creator in equine heaven more sooner than we think.

The colt underwent almost seven hours of surgery. In news releases the surgeon who operated on him declared he’s never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.

In fact no. 2, if he was a less patronized horse with that kind of injury, he would have been euthanized right there and then because it would be very unlikely he will survive long.

But Barbaro is an important horse. Horse racing fans evidently love him, and his owners too apparently because he’s getting all the proper care even humans rarely get.

However, it’s also true that keeping him alive is about money. As one cynical observer declares: the hope is that he can be saved because horses like him are worth at least $100,000 a "load" – a load of sperm that is…

And he’s not alone in that sentiment. In fact no. 3, Barbaro’s misfortune created an outcry among pro-animal groups. Then people who may not have had any interest in horse racing before are now scrutinizing the alleged…

Your horse finished 2nd? this Racebook will refund up to $200 of your bet
Kentucky Derby fever brings out the armchair handicapper in the most ordinary of folks. From moms, aunts and movie stars choosing coz of the horses’s name, color of saddle cloth or physical attributes "the horse with one blind eye"… [...]

Ouch! The 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby drew a FULL FIELD of 20 horses! the big race dubbed as “Run for the Roses” will be held at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday May 6, 2006. Last year a longshot horse by the name of GIACOMO won the race offering HUGE payouts for degenerate gamblers banking on longshot horses – this year, the favorite horses drew the outside posts – a tough spot as the Churchill turn in the final mile is wide, wide, wide.

There will be celebrities, college kids, moms and pops turning out for some good time. I am personally hoping it will rain – as longshots tend to come when it rains. Inside, Lawyer Ron and Brother Derek’s post positions are on the outside and their morning line odds are too flattering given such position at the starting gate. No picks are up yet – but you can bet I’m not counting on either of the two favorites to win.

Since we’ve had some mixed results with CompuTrak lately after a pretty hot start, we decided to put the software to the test. Today, we challenged our own horse racing columnist BG to handicap the card at Saratoga, and to put his picks right alongside what CompuTrak came up with. We’ll let them both have at it – after the jump… A DAY AT THE SPA It must be Ladies’ Day at Saratoga, as the card features a filly-and-mare heavy card, including the two De La Rose Stakes races in the latter half of the program. CompuTrak and BG both made their picks, we’ll let you know who’s the better handicapper later today. On to the races… 1) CompuTrak grabs #1 Zippy Missy in the Maiden Special Weight opener. She’s 3/1. We can’t argue with the pick here.

We heart CompuTrak. Since we started our run using the handicapping software, we’re up $129 on the picks. Since we heart our readers too, we’re going to give you three more cards worth of picks from the software, starting with Saratoga and Del Mar today, and running through the Spa program for Friday as well. We’ll also throw in a tip or two for maximizing your profits, after the jump of course… JUST SO WE CAN SAY "WE TOLD YOU SO" LATER Before we jump into the CT Picks, we’ve got a good tip for structuring your bets on these selections. First, if you’re going to play a pick that’s sitting at 5/1 or higher on the board, there’s a significant possibility that the Place pool will return $4 or more on a $2 bet if the horse wins or places. As a result, always back up your higher odds picks with a Place bet. Show bets are for losers, since they rarely return more than $4 unless the odds on the horse are egregiously high.