Horses Betting

There are a few horses that seem like favorites for the biggest horse race in the world as the Kentucky Derby is coming up.

In Kentucky Derby Odds, Uncle Mo is at 4-1 to win the Run for the Roses. Dialed In, at 3-1 is the only horse ahead of Uncle Mo in Kentucky Derby Betting.

Through his excellent racing in a number of G1 races, Uncle Mo earned his role as a favorite for the race. In October the horse started out his success in G1 races when he won at Champagne. In November, he continued with a winner at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. At the Timey Writer S. in March, his win continued to help his stock.

His last race raised some questions unfortunately. Uncle Mo was only able to finish in the 3rd place spot at the Wood Memorial, a G1 race. For the Kentucky Derby, some people felt like this showed that Uncle Mo wasn’t as much of a favorite as he was assumed to be.

Mike Repole of Repole Stable is the owner of Uncle Mo. For the horse, Repole has Todd A. Pletcher as the trainer. It looks like the Puerto Rican Jockey John Velazquez will ride the horse in the Derby as he has raced the horse for a while.

At Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of the Triple Crown, is scheduled to take place on the 7th of May, this Saturday. This Saturday Uncle Mo hopes to show up and put out a good performance. Uncle Mo may be a good candidate for a run at the Triple Crown if he is able to win the first leg of the Derby.

On Monday night, the most anticipated Horse of the Year announcement in 26 years highlights the 40th annual Eclipse Awards dinner, which is to be held at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida.

Will it be the wildly popular mare who had won all five of her starts in 2010, Zenyatta or will it be the nation’s leading older horse, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Blame?

The President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Alex Waldrop will make the announcement and it is expected to come between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of what promises to be a marathon evening. To the black-tie dinner, more than 500 people are expected to attend.

For that Eclipse Award, the colt Blame and the filly Zenyatta are finalists. At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky, Blame beat a fast-closing Zenyatta by a head Nov. 6 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In Zenyatta’s 20-race career, it was the only loss.

Racing writers and racetrack officials are the Eclipse Awards voters. On Jan.4, the voting was completed and in each category, the three top vote getters were identified as finalists. In racing publications, some writers said they voted for Zenyatta, as she generated a lot of publicity for racing and because she won five of her six 2010 races. Other writers said that they voted for Blame, as Blame beat Zenyatta. Blame had won four of the five 2010 races.

Two horses that began their careers at Calder Casino & Race Course, Awesome Feather and Big Drama are favored to win other Eclipse awards. For the 2-Year-Old Filly Award, Awesome Feather is a finalist. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly stakes Nov. 5 and has won all six of her 2010 races.

Other categories are slam-dunk decisions and are as close as the Zenyatta-Blame battle. Lookin At Lucky (3-year-old male), Goldikova (female turf horse), Uncle Mo (2-year-old male), Awesome Feather (2-year-old filly) and Blind Luck (3-year-old filly) are expected to win by landslide margins.

Finalists Ramon Dominguez, Garrett Gomez and John Velazquez could be separated by only a few votes in one of the most interesting categories, the top jockey.

Climbing 15.5% for last Saturday’s card, the overall handle for the Breeders’ Cup held at Churchill Downs increased to set a new record.

Fan-favorite and horse racing betting favorite as well, Zenyatta’s attempt to win her 20th race in the Classic helped the success of this year’s Breeder’s Cup. Other factors also helped increase the handle, such as an increase in race field size and a lower minimum for many exotic bets even though beyond Zenyatta’s fan base increasing television ratings. Last year, the all-sources handle on the 14 races was over $157 million, up from just over $136 million.

As did betting numbers on Zenyetta to win, betting on the Classic itself, set a record. As bettors could place a wider variety of bets, handle in exotic pools were increased due to the larger field sizes and bet minimums set to fifty cents.

Compared to previous years, attendance was also very strong for Saturday’s card, with over 70,000 at Churchill Downs and for Friday’s card almost 42,000 at the track. Enjoying two races Friday and the Classic Saturday under Churchill Downs’ track lights were the attendees, who enjoyed prime-time racing.

A successful Breeder’s Cup was contributed by innovative new betting offerings, increased field size, and the presence of a track favorite, of which many features will be utilized at the 2011 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs.

The 136th Kentucky Derby, or Run for the Roses, took place on Saturday at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Before the start of the race, many were concerned with how muddy the track was and the impact this would have on the horses and riders. Whether due to this or not, there was not any favorable horse to take the win. The top three horses were Looking at Lucky with 7-1 odds, Super Saver with 7-1 odds and Sidney’s Candy with 9-1 odds to take the win.

Right as horses and riders were mounting up, the sun finally peaked through the clouds, giving the track even more difficulty. With the track being completely drenched, the riders would now have a glare to deal with. Needless to say, it was anyone’s race at this point.

When the signal fired and the race began, out of the gate at take off, the top four horses were Conveyance, Sidney’s Candy, Line of David and Nobles Promise. At ¾ mile the top four didn’t change much, with Conveyance still in the lead, followed by Sidney’s Candy, Nobles Promise and Discretely Mine.

Super Saver, ridden by Calvin Borel, who has won the last 2 derby‘s on horses that no one favored, was making his trademark move and riding alongside the fence and steadily moving up to the front of the line. At the home stretch Super Saver by-passes all the other horses and crosses the finish line, taking first place.

This was the first Kentucky Derby win for owner Todd Fletcher. In the end the winners of the Kentucky Derby were first place, Super Saver, followed by Ice Box, Paddy O’ Brady, and rounding out the top four, Make Music For Me. Despite the blinding glare from the sun and a muddy track, the 136th Kentucky Derby made quite a show.