Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – I had opined in one of my Derby contenders columns that it just might be possible that the horses stabled in California could be the class of the three-year-old crop of colts this year.  With a few cases for comparisons before the running of the Kentucky Derby, a large part of both the intrigue of the race and the challenge of handicapping it is that three-year-olds largely cluster in several…

Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – No rain and no possums so far this morning is part of the Wednesday news from Churchill Downs just three days before the Kentucky Derby.  Under partly sunny skies and temperatures already in the 70s, a number of Derby hopefuls galloped with varying degrees of intensity.

More than one person covering the pre-Derby

Bob Hill
staff writer
Tracksideview.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky.  At daybreak this morning at Churchill Downs the relative humidity was 96 percent.  Temperatures are predicted to exceed 80 degrees by this afternoon.   Steamy is the weather word for the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby, a fitting metaphor for the challenge of picking a winner for Saturday’s 138^th renewal of the premier thoroughbred horserace in the United States.

 Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

Remember Spanish Chestnut.  His connections entered him in the Kentucky Derby and his 45.38-seconds opening quarter-mile caused the race to fall apart in 2005, setting up the win for Giacomo at odds of 50-1.  I still hold to the opinion that the decision by the connections of Spanish Chestnut cost Afleet Alex the Triple Crown. 

Now the connections of Trinniberg, an extremely capable sprinter, have announced that his first race around two turns…

Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

Kentucky Derby Rankings:

The 2012 crop of three-year-old colts appears to me to be the best and deepest group in at least a decade.  Injuries have not taken a major toll on the group, and barring defections between now and Derby Day I think any of the top seven on my list have a strong shot at winning.  Upsets are always a part of Derby possibilities as well.  I have eliminated several horses…

Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

NEW ORLEANS, La.  – Many times last year I kidded about how upside-down horseracing results were during the 12-months of 2011.  Graded stakes races became as unformful as $4,000 claiming races at the most obscure outposts of the sport.  Just when I was beginning to believe that perhaps we were returning to the more normal semblance of order (which in horseracing still borders on chaos) the weekend of the Florida Derby and Louisiana…

Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Many young adults outside the region where Gabriella Brown and Matt Pappis live probably would not appreciate just how special their internships were at Saratoga Race Course this past summer. 

If you told most unknowing high school and college students that Matt and Gabi spent the summer in the press box of the Yankees or Red Sox or that they had provided support to the media covering the NFL,…

Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Those who earn their livings on the backside of thoroughbred racing invest countless hours of hard work every day, and if they are fortunate they experience moments of reward on some afternoons throughout the year.  On the afternoon when a victory is achieved on the track everyone in the stable of the winning horse, from the trainer to the person who mucks stalls, shares that moment of achievement only…

Bob Hill
Staff writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The vote for top three-year-old male should be very interesting when ballots are cast in December.  Stay Thirsty’s win in the Grade 1 Travers means that there still is no double Grade 1 winner in 2011 among male thoroughbreds foaled in 2008.  The title of top male colt in this group most likely will be determined by what happens as some of them race against older horses this fall.  There are…

Bob Hill
Staff Writer
Tracksideview.com

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The  annual Saratoga fun is about to begin, and this year we are here for the final two weekends of the meet and the final full week that falls between those two weekends.  If seeing the Travers, King’s Bishop, Woodward and Hopeful was not reason enough to be filled with anticipation there is an added dimension to the start of our time here this year. 

 Hurricane Irene is bearing…