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We are in the mid-March eye of the storm where we have a brief lull before the second and more powerful blast hits us. Until then we take a deep breath, get through the eerie stillness, and prepare for the second wave, which will hit first in New Orleans. In addition to analyzing the Louisiana Derby we made a few changes in the Rankings order due to timing and added one new horse…

In addition to our take on the Tampa Bay Derby we have a number of changes to the rankings order with a focus this week on the various speed ratings to get an idea of how fast…or slow these horses are. Next week we will have to somehow plow though the annual dead March weekend with no stakes before the main attractions begin with the Louisiana Derby, the first of the 100-point races…

We finally got the kind of results we’ve been looking for as Forte and Practical Move established themselves as the two top horses, and we had several horses who were defeated that put their names in the mix with brighter things to come. Now it’s on to the Tampa Bay Derby…

With one uninspiring Derby prep after another it’s finally time to get some clarity regarding this year’s Derby trail as we await Saturday’s big tripleheader that features the long-awaited debuts of 2-year-old champ Forte in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, top California colt Practical Move in the San Felipe, and a wide-open contentious Gotham Stakes that could produce a new star. So sit back this week and wait for the first real fireworks of the year…we hope…

Because of a brain meltdown trying to plod through this crop of 3-year-olds, we’re back to a Top 15. This year so far, the weeks come and go with not too much to get excited about. And then there is the confusion of where the Bob Baffert horses are going and which ones will be leaving. I can’t recall ranking this many graded stakes winners so low or not at all. At least we are down to two weeks before the heavy hitters return on March 4 and hopefully clear up this muddled picture. ~ Steve Haskin Derby Rankings: Feb.  …Read More

With such a mish mash at the bottom of the Top 15 and basically groping in the dark, and with the 50-point races hopefully about to sort things out, this is a good week to go back to a “Derby Dozen,” and let those at the bottom of the list, those knocking on the door, and those who still have not started this year sort themselves out until we have a clearer picture of what exactly we’re dealing with and who the real Derby contenders are. ~ Steve Haskin Derby Rankings: Feb. 13, 2023 – Week 4 By Steve Haskin  …Read More

It was a strange weekend with the allowance winners taking the spotlight over the stakes winners. As a result we have yet another shakeup to the Rankings and even more confusion in this muddled Derby picture. Hopefully, things will start to clear up when some of top 2-year-olds make their long-awaited debuts…

We had a minor shakeup in Week 2, due in good part to a sloppy track at Oaklawn Park, resulting in some disappointing performances, and of course we had the emergence of yet another Bob Baffert bullet, as we lead into what promises to be an action packed weekend on both coasts…

Don’t panic at the length of the first Derby Rankings. There are so many horses to sort through and so few that have really stood out, especially at the stakes level. As is often the case, the ‘wow’ performances have been mostly in maiden races and we all know that horses often leave those races far behind when they move up in class and face winners. But as you will see, some of these impressive maiden winners have the foundation, running style, and pedigree to suggest they will keep improving. This is a long one, but we tried to cover as many as possible…