Page 2 - Ron Flatter News Today

With a short field and no Triple Crown on the line, Ron Flatter advises that its difficult to find a good wager for Saturdays big race.

3.57 Promise Keeper   The bad news for Promise Keeper and France Go de Ina is that American Pharoah is the only horse since 2004 to win a 1½-mile Belmont with a dosage index higher than 3.00.   Finally, in the last 14 normal runnings of the Belmont (in other words, ignore last year), the only two winners that had also been in the Preakness were Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify. That trend would seem to work against Rombauer, Midnight Bourbon, Keepmeinmind and France Go de In...

Good morning, it’s Monday, May 3, 2021. Over the weekend, Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos became the latest swing district Democrat to announce her impending retirement. Then, Texas Democrats in a district southwest of Fort Worth splintered their vote, thereby botching any chance they had of picking up a House seat in a special election. In non-political news, a horse named Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby, a record seventh time trainer Bob Baffert has won the “Run for the Roses.” Baffert�...

With several bigger-name horses either bypassing or not qualifying for the Run for the Roses, Ron Flatter bemoans too much filler in the field at Churchill Downs.

  Trainers have said their 3-year-olds might be better suited to a shorter distance or a later date. In some cases, that might actually be true. It also might be true that they want no part of Essential Quality, now best-priced in Las Vegas futures as a 3-1 favorite. It could be that horsemen are conceding that this maturing crop of 2018 foals is thin.   Concert Tour was the latest big defection. Bob Baffert decided after a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby that Gary and Mary West’s ...

Ron Flatter notes that popular favorites for the Run for the Roses are carrying very short odds

And now for something completely different. Half the year — even more in 2020 — this story has been about Kentucky Derby futures. This week — and this week only — it is about the Kentucky Oaks. For 54½ hours, starting at noon ET Friday and ending at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, American bettors have their only legal chance to get early action on the 3-year-old fillies that will race April 30. This is the week — actually more like the half-week — when Churchill Downs makes book on its only sch...

Guide to Saturdays two 2021 Kentucky Derby preps Guide to Saturdays two 2021 Kentucky Derby preps Photo: Liz Lamont / Eclipse Sportswire Moments after Greatest Honour drew off Jan. 30 to win the Holy Bull Stakes (G3), trainer Shug McGaughey remarked that “the pressure begins now.” That pressure continues Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where Greatest Honour leads a field of 10 into the $300,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2). Post time for the 1 1/16-mile event is schedule...

  With his 2-for-2 record and his Sham Stakes victory and his debut Beyer Speed Figure of 101 and his six-time Derby-winning trainer, Bob Baffert, Life Is Good closed Sunday as the 7-1 individual favorite in Pool 3 of the monthly Churchill Downs pari-mutuel offering. It carries the name “Kentucky Derby Future Wager” as if it is the one and only — and as if those other markets in outposts like the Nevada desert are rogue impostors.   Silly money drove the KDFW market just as it did with ...

If races are supposed to grow more important as the Kentucky Derby gets closer, why is Saturday such a glaring exception? Simple, really. Neither the Withers in New York nor the Sam F. Davis in Florida has ever produced a Derby winner.