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Louisville, Ky. Before taking the first crack at unlocking how to make any money on this year’s Bob Baffert Invitational, a.k.a. Preakness 146, a peek behind the racing journalists’ curtain is in order. It reveals a little more than a half-day in the arc of the Triple Crown. Around 7 a.m. Thursday, I drove into the stable area at Churchill Downs. Knowing that trainer Brad Cox would be on a media conference call six hours later, I was hoping he would tell me first whether Mandaloun and Caddo River would be in the Preakness. Upon my arrival only barn goat Mister Man was there to greet me.

What odds can you get in Vegas before Kentucky Derby draw? By Ron Flatter Six months after he opened at 20-1 in Las Vegas futures, Essential Quality drifted from 3-1 to a best price of 7-2 in the final hours before the Tuesday draw for Saturday’s William Hill Nevada made him a co-favorite with Rock Your World, one of the other undefeated horses expected to be in the field for the 147th running of America’s greatest race. Less than three months after Circa Sports listed him as a 300-1 long shot, Florida Derby (G1) winner Known Agenda remains the consensus third choice at 5-1. Louisiana

Louisville, Ky. The name Phil Thomas does not appear in present-day past performances. The last race on his training record was run more than three years ago. His last winner was at the end of the summer of 2013. But something he said resonates to this day with horseplayers handicapping the Kentucky Derby. “I bet if you looked at it,” he said, “horses that won the Derby came fast the last quarter-mile of their last prep.” That was how Jennie Rees recalled a seminal conversation years ago with Thomas. Now a publicist for racetracks and a horsemen’s association, Rees back then was a r...

Tulsa, Okla. As my wife and I were watching movers pack up our old apartment in Las Vegas, my phone blew up with angry reaction to a development that had become tiringly familiar lately. “No Indiana Grand for Nevada horseplayers,” was the gist of one Tweet. “Such a petty disservice in an industry that needs every ounce of interest/attraction it can muster,” was another reaction. It went on in another Tweet. “J-O-K-E. An issue for how many years?” You can take the boy out of Las Vegas, but you cannot take the dispute between the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association and Churchill Downs In...

Las Vegas If not for the last four jumps of last week’s Blue Grass Stakes, the entire Kentucky Derby picture would have gone from the High Renaissance of Raphael to the abstract of Jackson Pollock. That was just a haughty way of saying the apple cart was nearly flipped completely over in the past week. Essential Quality needed nearly every stride of the 1⅛ miles around Keeneland last Saturday to overtake Highly Motivated in the Blue Grass and remain undefeated. In the time since, Rock Your World moved successfully from the turf to dirt with a decisive upset in the Santa Anita Derby, Great...