The Week in Review

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley We will need a bigger sample size before being able to fully evaluate how Monmouth's experiment with whip-free racing has fared. But this much is certain: Three days in and after hysterical fomenting from the pro-whip side of the argument, the whip-less races amounted to a big nothingburger. That is to say there were no incidents, no major form reversals, no mass boycotts from the horseplayers, etc. Perhaps this was just round one in what figures to be a long, drawn-out battle that...

When Bob Baffert told us last week that he thought the positive drug test for Medina Spirit (Protonico) following the GI Kentucky Derby was the result of his having been treated with an anti-fungal ointment, he seemed to be suggesting that the whole thing was an honest and forgivable mistake. No harm, so why the foul? "This has never been a case of attempting to game the system or get an unfair advantage," he said. On that, he's likely telling the truth. That Baffert would use a rather benign corticosteroid...

Besides solidifying his status as a top-tier Triple Crown threat, Saturday's win by Known Agenda (Curlin) in the GI Curlin Florida Derby bolstered the overall case that the phase-out of Lasix in this year's series of GI Kentucky Derby preps seems to be having no adverse effect on performance. Through 20 races in North America since Jan. 1 that have awarded Derby qualifying points, horses giving up Lasix after receiving it in their prior start have won five of those races. Seven others have finished second, an impressive strike rate...

He did not win Saturday over in Saudi Arabia, but Charlatan (Speightstown) proved that he is undoubtedly the best dirt horse in America. That's how well he ran in his one-length defeat to Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) in the $20-million race. It was by no means a surprise that Charlatan and Knicks Go (Paynter) got caught up in a speed duel. Both are talented horses with abundant early speed and jockeys Joel Rosario (Knicks Go) and Mike Smith (Charlatan) rode aggressively, perhaps because neither rider wanted to see their...

The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton In a departure from recent seasons, homebreds are dominating the GI Kentucky Derby trail through the early portion of the 2021 prep-race season. In the TDN Derby Top 12 that will be published in the Feb. 2 edition, no fewer than seven of the leading dozen race for the same owners who planned their matings, raised them as foals, and got those colts into the starting gate. That 7-of-12 ratio is as high a number of homebreds within the Top 12 at any...

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley After last year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic, it seemed that every horse that mattered had been retired and that 2021 was going to be a bleak year for the handicap ranks. But 23 days into the year, it is apparent that's not going to be the case. First, Charlatan (Speightstown) turned in a sizzling performance in his comeback race in the GI Runhappy Malibu S. and, exactly four weeks, later Knicks Go (Paynter) could not have won the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational...

Leave it to one of the darkest days of the year to deliver two glimmering equine efforts that could combust into shining stars for the 2021 racing season. On the cusp of the winter solstice, breakout races book-ended the Saturday Fair Grounds card. One was a smart, step-wise progression by a juvenile colt in a NW2L allowance who now has credible GI Kentucky Derby aspirations. The other was an admirably impressive comeback by a still-undefeated 3-year-old whose own chance at the 2020 Derby got derailed by injuries and untimely setbacks....

Nearly two decades apart, we've witnessed a Breeders' Cup in the aftermath of a devastating terrorism attack, which led to armed marksmen defending the rooftop of the host track, and now during a global pandemic, which necessitated the barring of the general public from the two-day event and kept the relatively few essential attendees masked and socially distanced from one another. Unlike 2001, this year's championships produced no singular "Tiznow wins it for America!" moment to buoy the spirit of a nation in crisis. But the crescendo of Authentic (Into...

The final chapters have yet to be penned in Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect)'s book, but it's safe to say the 7-year-old sprinter is in the autumn of his career. He's a closer who has excelled in a division where out-and-out front-end speed often dominates, he's run in three consecutive GI Breeders' Cup Sprints that have each drawn as "loaded" affairs won by the eventual Eclipse Award champ, and he'll seek his first Breeders' Cup win in start number four over a host track (Keeneland) whose main-track profile has been tilted toward...

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley Trainer Ken McPeek had set himself up for second guessing when he decided to run Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Preakness S.. Not only would she have to face males, the Preakness would be her ninth race of the year and Pimlico would be the ninth track she has competed at in 2020. With a start in October, she would have raced during every month on the calendar but April. By modern standards, it has been a bruising schedule and one that...

The next chapter in the scandal that has rocked Thoroughbred racing played out last week when Scott Robinson and Sarah Izhaki both pled guilty to charges relating to the sale and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs used to dope race horses. It was an important development, but the bigger story is this: will it lead to a new and extensive list of indictments against trainers and others who so far have not been charged? That possibility certainly exists. For now, everything is speculation and the Department of Justice has not said...

Now that the GI Kentucky Derby has been run on the first Saturday in September and we found out the world didn't tilt off its axis because of the pandemic's blow to tradition, it's time to start leveraging the scheduling chaos caused by COVID-19 so it serves as a way to propel the sport forward instead of back to the perceived comforts of normalcy. This year's June 20 GI Belmont S., although shortened to nine furlongs as a nod to pandemic practicality, served its purpose as a fine "welcome back...