On to Pimlico

The celebrations of Kentucky Derby glory are winding down. Big winnings from Derby Day are already earmarked for this, that, and the other thing. Time to slow down, and ease up on the racing discussion. Uh…no! The Preakness has always been one of my favorite races of the year. Often the most formful race of the Triple Crown, the Preakness does not feature the twenty horse pinball effect of the Derby. It is at a distance which better matches the horses running, as opposed to the marathon of the Belmont Stakes. It also offers something no other race in the world can boast…a brand new Kentucky Derby champion on his quest to become racing’s twelfth ever Triple Crown winner. For these reasons and many others, the Preakness is truly one of the great American races, and I will diving in head first over the next twelve days to break down the Preakness, ZATT style. Here is the most current list of Preakness possibles, with my current morning line odds, and quick comment: Aikenite 25-1 Pletcher plan B runner showed improvement in the Derby Trial, but I think that is because of the shorter distance. 1 3/16 will prove tough for the son of Yes It’s True. A Little Warm 25-1 He went from a stakes win sprinting to a solid effort in the Louisiana Derby. Not sure if he can make another big jump up against these, but should be a pace factor. Bushwhacked 20-1 Lightly raced colt is getting better at the right time. I have a lot of respect for his trainer, Jonathan Sheppard, but this is still a lot to ask of a horse who won a maiden sprint in April. Caracortado 15-1 Scarface returns! Likeable California bred has been freshened since the Santa Anita Derby, should get a good stalking trip, and if he takes to dirt…watch out. Dublin 15-1 Actually ran a good race in Louisville, but once again came up a little short in the late stages. A nice horse to be sure, but a flat mile may be the distance he is best suited. Hurricane Ike 15-1 Where did the Derby Trial come from? It was a big performance in his second dirt try. The Preakness will be another huge step up for the Sadler trainee, but his last makes him at least a little interesting. Ice Box 9-2 The Florida Derby win was clearly no fluke, and all in all you could make a solid argument that he ran best at Churchill. Fast pace made his rally all the more potent and may need the same pace to win at Pimlico. Jackson Bend 15-1 May be the more likely of the Lapenta/ Zito colts to make the race. Hard trying little guy deserves another chance after the Derby craziness. Lookin At Lucky 7-2 The trip in the Derby was bad, come to think of it every trip he has had since the Breeders’ Cup have been bad. Sooner or later he will get a good trip. He is the Derby winner’s main threat. Paddy O Prado 10-1 As many predicted, he ran big in Louisville. Not that long ago he was a maiden, but now he may be have progressed enough to win a big one. Can he do it on a fast track? Pleasant Prince 25-1 Connections tried hard to qualify him for the Derby, it did not work. Now I am afraid they are left with a non-fresh horse moving in the wrong direction. Schoolyard Dreams 20-1 He defeated Super Saver just a few races ago, but then disappointed in the Wood Memorial. I still think he may have the potential to be a live longshot in Baltimore. Super Saver 5-2 Derby winner is progressing with each start. His new found ability to rate makes him doubly tough to handle. The horse to beat to get two thirds of the way to immortality. Turf Melody 50-1 Motion runner has not been able to scare the top horses in mediocre preps so far. I can’t recommend him to do any better in the Middle Jewel.

Super Man, Super Relief and Super Saver!

Today is not the day. I refuse to question the brilliance of the Kentucky Derby champion, Super Saver. I will not add fuel to the doubters who believe he can not win the Triple Crown. Nor will I question whether or not he would have won if Ice Box or Lookin at Lucky had smoother trips. Today is not the day to talk about what would have happened if Eskendereya had been able to run. Today is all about Super Saver. Congratulate him and his handlers for winning the greatest of all American horse races. 43-year-old jockey Calvin Borel continues to amaze. He is a true American hero. Raised from modest beginnings in Louisiana, he now sits squarely atop the world of Thoroughbred jockeys. If it is true what they say, and the Kentucky Derby is the race that everyone wants to win, than Calvin Borel must be the envy of all of America’s jockeys. In the last four years, he has won three Derbies, with a third place finish in the other year. A remarkable run, that will be hard to match again in our lifetimes. Borel has won with a favorite, and he has won with a rank outsider. Every Derby mount he rides has a better chance to win, simply because he is on their back. The most recognizable racetrack in the United States, Churchill Downs, is now Calvin’s track. Our newest Kentucky Derby winning trainer, Todd Pletcher, has been the most successful trainer in the 21st century. He has broken his own earnings records, as he’s piled up Eclipse Awards. At 42 years of age, he has accomplished more in the sport than most trainers can even dream of, but still there was something missing. A big something. Without a Kentucky Derby win, Pletcher’s career was incomplete. Like the Hall of Fame quarterback who never won the Super Bowl, Pletcher trained with a 100 pound monkey on his back…until yesterday. Happiness? Joy? Perhaps relief is the best description. Todd Pletcher will never again have to answer questions about never having won the big win. He is now poised to have the greatest year in his stellar career. Sweet relief. As for the Kentucky Derby winner himself, Super Saver is a beautiful colt who has run well in every single one of his races. He has the classic breeding of a champion and has always been considered a horse with the potential to do something really big. In his narrow defeats of 2010, in the Tampa Bay and Arkansas Derbies, he showed courage and gameness despite not being fully cranked up. Super Saver was prepared to peak on the first Saturday in May, and now he is the winner of the Kentucky Derby. He is now the only horse who can win the elusive Triple Crown. Can he win it? Is he the best three-year-old in the nation? We will not start worrying about that until we are within twelve days of the Preakness…on Monday morning!

Mission Impazible No Longer for Todd?

As I slowly drifted into a Derby Eve slumber, one name kept rolling through my mind. Surprisingly it was not my top pick, Awesome Act. Nor was it the horse to beat, Lookin at Lucky, or the Girl Power entrant, Devil May Care. It wasn’t even Calvin Borel’s strong entry, Super Saver. Rather my brain was stuck on one name…Mission Impazible. Interesting. What does it all mean? As only a minor believer in the value of hunches or premonitions, I greet this bedtime revelation with skeptical optimism. The good news is that Mission Impazible was already one of my Fab Five, and even better he is clearly the longest shot of the bunch. I have him in several live tickets in Derby Future Exactas, and Oaks-Derby Doubles, so a Mission Impazible victory would be a nice collect. As you may have guessed, the other four members of my Fab Five are the same four mentioned at the beginning of this piece, and I believe the horse that becomes the 136th champion of the Kentucky Derby will be one the five. With the expected fast pace materializing, I see this as a race that will be very hard for any speed horse to win. Benefiting from the tiring leaders should be the English invader Awesome Act. The son of Awesome Again is well suited to appreciate the grueling late stages of the Kentucky Derby, and his explosive turn of foot should give him every chance as the horse turn for home. Broodmare sire Mr. Prospector, also gives Awesome Act a great chance to thrive on an off track. I expect him to redeem himself for a poor Wood Memorial, where everything went wrong, and premonition or not, he is still my top pick. Lookin at Lucky is hard to ignore. He is bred for the trip, is the juvenile champion, and he is consistent as they come. If not for bad racing luck, Lucky could have an even better record than the excellent 8-6-1-1 that he has compiled. Drawing the 1 post did him no favors, and an off track could compromise his chances, but it should come as no surprise to anyone to see the Bob Baffert trained champion end up in the winner’s circle.  Mission Impazible is a bit of a wildcard, but one with much to like. The son of the mercurial sire Unbridled’s Song has a racing pattern that I like to see in the Derby. He displayed a ton of talent early in his juvenile season and then was put on the shelf with minor physical problems. In his three races this year, he has shown steady improvement culminating with a win in the Louisiana Derby. He is working well, and has solid wet track experience. All in all he is a very attractive longshot. Devil May Care is another who is a bit of unknown. You never know for sure if the filly will be good enough to handle the boys, but clearly recent history is in her corner. Like Mission Impazible, she should get a favorable position in the middle of the pack. She has displayed clear signs of being a good one with wins in the Frizette and Bonnie Miss, and possibly as much as anyone in the field, may have the ability to still improve a great deal. She won her last race nicely, despite running greenly, and Pletcher has always said that she will relish a distance. Rounding out my Fab Five is Super Saver. The only speed horse I have selected, Super Saver has the advantage of excellent experience over both a sloppy track and over the Churchill Downs strip. He has two solid preps under his belt and should be ready to fire his best shot. The pace scenario does worry me a little, but there is no one I would rather have in the irons on Derby Day than Calvin Borel. Super Saver looks the part and is bred to be a Derby winner. At this time it looks like he may be vying for favoritism, but he has too many positives to overlook even if he is a little overbet. Happy Derby Day everyone. Win, lose, or draw, I hope you all enjoy the most exciting two minutes in sports all day long.

Oaks Day Doings

First thing first, Blind Luck may not be the most talented filly in the world, but she is a champion through and through. I was thoroughly impressed with her from-dead-last rally, and here’s why: The pace was quite moderate, it would have been so much easier for Blind Luck to uncork her patented rally with a brisk pace. She has rallied before, but circling a full field of 14 was a whole new ball game. She passed this new test with flying colors. Finally, the filly she nipped at the wire, Evening Jewel, is obviously very good, underrated, and most importantly, she was absolutely full of run in the stretch. Only a gritty champion like Blind Luck could have beat her today. Blind Luck is a champion, and it will take a Devil May Care upset win in the Derby to steal one bit of her sophomore filly thunder. Now for the less happy news. Rachel Alexandra lost. Again. Rachel Alexandra ran the greatest race I have ever seen a filly run in last year’s Haskell runaway. Since then, things have been anything but easy. Three races and three doggedly tough photo finishes. The first she won, in the Woodward, and the last two she has been defeated. The two losses this year were good races by normal horse’s standards, but Rachel Alexandra is no normal horse. Clearly Rachel is not, to this point at least, the same Rachel we grew to love in 2009. It is not uncommon for fillies to regress after time away from the races. Filly winners of the Kentucky Derby illustrate this phenomenon. Genuine Risk only ran in allowance company as an older filly, winning two of three, and Winning Colors, finished out of the money in five out of her seven starts at four years of age. It is still too early to tell what this means for Rachel’s future, but I will never see her as anything but the champion that she is. Do not give up on her yet. And now for another shameless plug…ZATT the Magazine has launched!!! It’s official, my dream is a reality. Please join me at http://www.zattmag.com/. Derby tease (more to come tomorrow.) The Kentucky Derby will be won by one of these five: Awesome Act, Lookin at Lucky, Mission Impazible, Super Saver, or Devil May Care.

Down and Derby – It’s Awesome!

The waiting is almost over. The final moments of anticipation disappear, as the clock ticks closer to seeing twenty of the best three-year-old Thoroughbreds in the world test themselves in the most exciting two minutes in sports. I feel the importance of the moment as my palms sweat and my breathing shallows. The final seconds seem to move in super slow motion as the horses circle behind the two Kentucky Derby starting gates and are led into their ultimate date with destiny. One of them will be two minutes away from immortality. We are almost there. The 136th Run for the Roses is upon us, and it is finally time to get Down and Derby!!! ***The remainder of today's column can be found on Youbet.com*** Click Here

Labor Pains, Dad, and the Derby

I’m not sure if my story is unique, but it has led me to becoming a huge fan of Thoroughbred horse racing. Let me begin from the beginning. On June 5, 1969 a male baby was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. By the time Brian Daniel Zipse was introduced to the world, I was already destined to love the horses. Flash back a few year earlier, and so the joke goes…my father and mother had just arrived to the parking lot of Arlington Park, when my very pregnant mother turned and said, “I think I am going into labor!” My dad, already looking at his racing form, countered with, “OK, let me go in and play the Double and then we’ll head to the hospital.” I honestly do not know how much of that anecdote is based in reality, but that is how my father tells it, and I am sticking to it. It can be no wonder that the result of the pregnancy, my older brother David, and I would love horse racing. We are our father’s sons. My father was a first generation horse fan, as he became enthralled with the sport in his late teens. He was fortunate enough to have a buddy that indoctrinated him to the ways of racing in Chicago in the 1950’s. I was even more fortunate. My father would take his young sons to the races all the time. By the time I was born, the small Zipse clan had moved to the East Coast, and while Chicago had great racing in the 50’s and 60’s, New York more than ever, was the center of the racing universe. As a tyke, we would make the trek over the George Washington and Throgs Neck Bridges on a regular basis to get to Belmont Park. In those days New Jersey had a rule that you had to be twelve years old to enter their racetracks, so Belmont was the place for us to be. Good thing too. I witnessed horses like Secretariat, Riva Ridge, Ruffian, Forego, and Wajima at a very young age. Yes, I was there when Secretariat stormed home by 31 lengths to win the Triple Crown. I still remember the grandstand shaking beneath my four-year-old feet. It seemed Belmont had stars running each and every Saturday. By the time I was nine, I started breaking New Jersey’s age rule. A big kid… I was never carded. Monmouth Park became my second racing home, but Belmont was still racing’s hub. Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Alydar, and Spectacular Bid helped me complete my first decade of life. While I enjoyed many sports growing up, my favorite heroes were always of the four-legged variety. At Belmont Park we would often meet up with my dad’s racing buddies. Guys like Belmont Bill would become like surrogate uncles to me. Half the fun of going to the races in those days, was listening to the magical language the adults used when talking about the horses. I am proud to say I could talk horses and read the Form at the age most kids were tackling Curious George. My dad and his buddies knew what they were talking about. By the way, Belmont Bill would soon become noted handicapping author Dr. William Quirin. Another chapter in my horse racing journey came when my dad and those same buddies formed a partnership to buy a few broodmares. In their infinite wisdom, the group targeted Explodent as their broodmare sire of choice. The newly formed Triomphe Farm had legendary trainer P.G. Johnson claim one Explodent filly and then another soon after. The partnership included only intelligent men, who also happened to be opinionated. Not surprisingly, it would only last a handful of years. While it did last, it was a lot of fun. We would visit the mares at their New York farm, feeding them apples and carrots. We followed intently the progress of the foals they produced, and when one of the first, a daughter of our first broodmare, Triomphe’s Glory won a New York bred allowance at Belmont, it was a different and special kind of feeling. Even though we had sold the filly at auction, it was fabulous to see her succeed. As I mentioned, the partnership disbanded and the Zipse family was no longer in the breeding business, but those days helped to affirm my love not only of racing but of the horses themselves. I was always an animal lover, so much so, that my parents always thought I would grow up to be a veterinarian. While that never happened, horses always held a special place in my heart. I consider them to be the most beautiful and majestic creatures on God’s earth, and I will love them until the day I die. I believe my appreciation for horses as individuals only adds to my appreciation of the game, and as you can probably tell by now, the game is in my blood. I am lucky enough to love both sides, the beauty of the game and the horse, as well as the analytical side. There is not much better than studying the Daily Racing Form and solving the mathematical puzzle of how the race should unfold. For me racing is the perfect combination of sport, nature, and testing my cognitive abilities. Growing up, it was never a consideration to let the horses fade from my full attention. Some of my favorite childhood memories are the trips we would make centered around the horses. Day trips to Delaware Park and vacations up to Saratoga were especially memorable. In my teens, the equine heroes kept coming. Maybe not quite like the glory days of the 70’s, but racing always has stars, and I have always been there to appreciate them. Horses like Princess Rooney, Lady’s Secret, and Sunday Silence gave me pure joy to watch. They also gave me something always to look forward to. When it came time to go off to college, the University of Louisville was a natural choice. While my grades at U of L may have suffered, I had a great group of friends, and I was in the heart of horse country. Heaven. We had made trips before to see racing at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, but I had never been to the biggest day of racing itself, the Kentucky Derby. My first Derby in person was in 1990. It was amazing. The whole week is one big celebration, as the city of Louisville swells to twice its normal population. Twenty or so of my college friends and I filed into the Churchill Downs infield. We batted about 50% in sneaking in our illegal contraband, mostly good old fashioned Kentucky bourbon, so the party was on. While many were there strictly for Kentucky’s biggest party, I was also there for the great horses. My first infield was quite the scene, but I was able to still remain true to my roots. I made bets and watched what I could see of the races. Many of my friends followed me and listened intently to my picks, as I was the resident horse expert, and somehow, someway the day ended as happily as I could have possibly hoped. Through the alcohol induced haze, and the frolicking, in what had become the mud-field, my friends and I witnessed a powerful colt burst past the pack and easily win that Kentucky Derby. His name was Unbridled, and he had been the horse I had been picking all Spring. At 10-1, he rewarded all of his backers handsomely. I was one of them and so were many of my friends. Unbridled was the day’s star, but my friends looked at me as if I was a handicapping god as they cashed in. Some of them are still fans of racing to this day. Silly I know, but it was a great day. As I became a responsible adult, my love for racing never waned. From the days working as a hotwalker in college to following the sport closely ever since, I always fantasized about a career of some sort in racing. It never really happened until something amazing occurred. A filly named Rachel Alexandra came into my life. I became so completely enamored with her, that it energized me to start writing about the game I love in earnest. Thanks to encouragement from so many wonderful people involved in this great sport, like my writing idol, Steve Haskin, I started my own blog, Zipse at the Track. It has been my way of expressing my love for Thoroughbred horse racing, and it is my sincere hope that in some small way it has helped attract more fans to the game. Just as I had parents who helped me nurture my love for horses, I now am lucky to have a wife who supports my great interest. We also have a not quite two-year-old daughter who loves to watch the horses with her daddy. Many of you have read my writing, and as I embark on a new project, an online racing magazine called ZATT the Magazine, I hope you will continue to enjoy my small contribution to the sport I love. This piece was my racing biography submitted to the Thoroughbred Racing in New York (TRNY) group run by Ernie Munick on Facebook.  The link to their site is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8466519122#!/topic.php?uid=8466519122&topic=19510