Calumet Farm will hope the third time's the charm when True Timber competes in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational for the third consecutive year.
Month: January 2021
Choosing the Right Online Poker Room
Choosing an online poker room now a days is a much more difficult task then it was a just a few years ago. Online poker has grown by leaps and bounds just in the past few years and the number of rooms has grown and is growing at a rapid pace. When choosing an online poker room you should take into account at the very minimum the following: safety, quality and comfort. These are the 3 things that Gambling Guru, http://www.gambling-guru.com, takes into account before beginning any of our online poker leagues.
Safety
By safety it is meant as to how safe is it to move money in and out of the poker room. Take this into account first and foremost whenever trying out an online poker room. Since the industry is not heavily regulated by governing bodies and is mostly self-regulated you need to know you can trust the poker room you choose to handle your money.
For this reason it is best to stick with poker rooms that have established themselves in the industry and have built a solid player base. Poker rooms such as Paradise Poker, Absolute Poker, PokerRoom.com and Party Poker have proven to be stable online poker rooms that are going to be around for the long haul. All of these poker rooms not only have proven to be reliable, but have also not rested on their past accomplishments. Each of these poker rooms also has a 3rd party check their poker algorithm to make sure it is working properly and deals fair hands time and time again. This quality check makes sure these poker rooms remain at the industry forefront.
Quality
Quality can mean different things to different people when discussing online poker rooms. In this case it refers to a couple different things. Here it is referring to software quality. Choosing an online poker room which is satisfying visually, in game play, and in reliability is important. Most online poker rooms now offer versions of their software to download and try out playing with play money before commiting to playing for real money.
Gambling Guru recommends choosing a room which is satisfying visually in order to maximize the online poker playing experience. Some rooms take extra steps to make the table seem more life like. For example poker rooms such as Pokerroom.com have added people as avatars to their tables. Other rooms such as Paradise Poker do not have people at their tables, but have added options where a player can order a drink or snack from a menu. This is something that personally keeps players entertained, however so slightly, while waiting in between hands.
Another option to balance into the equation is the quality of the game play. Make sure that the room choosen offers all of the features you need to make game play fun and easy. Decide if it is easy to follow the action going on at the table. Some rooms such as Pokerroom.com highlight the player whose turn it is to act. This seems obvious, but some rooms don’t offer this option. The player must keep track of the action in the chat dialogue box. If however, you are playing multiple tables, then you may want to be able to quickly click back and forth between tables and find out where the action is visually without having to scroll through a chat box to find out.
Finally, take into account software and server reliability. This is listed third here, but may be the most important factor in choosing an online poker room. It is definitely no fun to have to be constantly disconnected from the room during play, especially when a crucial decision must be made. If you find you must battle this problem often with your online poker room it will add additional stress to the online poker experience.
Comfort
Most importantly you need to feel comfortable with the poker room you have chosen. This means you must take every element from above into consideration and decide if the online poker room you have chosen is right for you. If you don’t feel comfortable with the poker room in any of the above categories then I would suggest finding a new place to play online poker. Whether you are logging on to play for poker for fun or to try to make a career out of playing online poker, you need to have confidence in the poker room to deliver your money, deliver answers to your questions quickly and accurately, and deliver an enjoyable playing experience.
If you would like more information regarding online poker rooms that Gambling Guru supports, you can read our Poker Reviews at http://www.gambling-guru.com/poker_reviews.php.
Midnight Bourbon Holds Off Proxy, Mandaloun In Lecomte
Winchell Thoroughbreds' Midnight Bourbon took the lead from the start in Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots' $200,000 Lecomte (G3) for 3-year-olds and held that position to the wire en route to a one-length win over Proxy, who headed out heavily favored Mandaloun for the place spot. The winner amassed 10 qualifying points for Churchill Downs' May 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
Midnight Bourbon, the second-choice at 3.70-1, and Joe Talamo broke running and took the initiative immediately in the eight-horse field, while allowed to set leisurely fractions of 24.68 and 48.99 over a stalking Proxy at 8.90-1, and three-wide Mandaloun, who was odds-on at 4-5. Little changed off the far turn, as Talamo asked Midnight Bourbon, and the pair increased their advantage to two lengths, and held sway to the line, with Proxy proving a game second over Mandaloun. It was a large gap of 8 ¾ lengths back to fourth-place finisher Santa Cruiser, at 7.30-1. Midnight Bourbon covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.41 while defeating seven rivals. He boosted his career record to 5-2-1-2 with earnings of $221,420.
Midnight Bourbon was making his 3-year-old debut for trainer Steve Asmussen after an encouraging 2-year-old season that saw him hit the board in a pair of graded stakes. The son of Tiznow broke his maiden going one mile in his second start at Ellis Park in August, and ran a good second in Churchill's Iroquois (G3) on Kentucky Derby Day in September before finishing his season running third in Belmont Park's October 10 Champagne (G1). Asmussen, who won the Lecomte for the third time, was pleased with Midnight Bourbon's freshman campaign but he was confident the best was yet to come.
“Lovely horse, he's a beautiful individual,” Asmussen said. “Obviously he had run some solid races (at 2), but we were very much looking forward to getting him into two-turn races. His pedigree, we think that going further will help him. He's got a beautiful stride to him. He was away nice and cleanly and Joe (jockey Talamo) gave him a nice trip.”
Midnight Bourbon began his preparation for the Lecomte in November and showed a quartet of five-furlong works leading up to the race. The Lecomte was clearly just the starting off point to what Asmussen hopes is a big campaign, with races like the local February 13 Risen Star (G2) on Louisiana Derby Preview Day and March 20 TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) on the agenda.
“He's going to develop into an excellent 3-year-old,” Asmussen said. “Absolutely (when asked about the Risen Star). We were very excited to get him down here (to New Orleans) and get him in this series and stuff. With him being capable of what he is away from there, the ground that he covers, I think it's a natural fit.”
Talamo was a late replacement for jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., who took off all his Saturday mounts “because his girlfriend and baby are sick and he didn't feel comfortable leaving Louisville for various reasons,” according to his agent Ruben Munoz.
The veteran Talamo, who was born in Marrero, just 13 miles away from Fair Grounds, was ecstatic over the ultimate catch ride.
“It felt really good (to get the mount),” Talamo said. “Just really grateful to Steve for giving me the opportunity on him. Very, very classy horse. He broke like a rocket out of there and I just tried to be a good passenger from there. He settled like a champ and when those horses came to him down the lane, he fought (them) off, and he really galloped out very, very nice.”
Godolphin's homebred Proxy earned 4 Derby qualifying points and ran big in defeat for trainer Mike Stidham, as he was stepping up into his first stakes off a pair of local wins. The regally-bred son of Tapit broke his maiden here in November in his second career start and entered off a win in an optional-claimer December 18. Proxy won on the lead while setting slow splits in both starts, while showing some inexperience in the process, but showed a rating gear in the Lecomte, which has Stidham also looking forward to his colt's future.
“Very, very happy with that (run),” Stidham said. “He was a little green last time and both of his wins were on the lead so he didn't really learn a lot. But the way he dug in and held off the favorite (Mandaloun) in the end, and was getting to the winner, I couldn't have been happier. I think the farther the better; the mile and an eighth, and the mile and three-sixteenths of the Louisiana Derby is only going to help him. We needed him to do what he did today (to keep going on) and he did it.”
Juddmonte Farms' homebred Mandaloun, who earned 2 Derby qualifying points, was a strong favorite off a pair of sprint wins in Kentucky to start his career for trainer Brad Cox. The son of Into Mischief won on debut at Keeneland in October then won an optional-claimer at Churchill November 28, but he didn't finish as strongly while stretching out to two turns for the first time. Mandaloun sat an outside trip from a wide post under Florent Geroux but didn't kick in as expected through the stretch.
“I was in a good stalking position, two or three wide,” Geroux said. “My options were limited. The winner just kept going. It was very close for second. The way we started, that's the way we finished. Maybe it was the slow pace, but the horses in front of me had a better kick at the end.”
Calumet Farm's homebred Santa Cruiser, who dueled through hot fractions when breaking his maiden in his last start November 19 at Churchill, surprisingly lagged far behind in last but did run on nicely late for trainer Keith Desormeaux. The son of Dialed In earned 1 Derby qualifying point for his effort and is another who figures to move on to the Risen Star.
Updated Kentucky Derby Leaderboard
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Title Ready Notches First Stakes Victory, Upsetting Blackberry Wine And Wells Bayou In Louisiana
Spoiling the comeback of Wells Bayou, winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby in 2020, the Charles Fipke homebred Title Ready kicked in with a strong stretch punch to win the G3 Louisiana Stakes for older horses at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., on Saturday.
Ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., the Dallas Stewart-trained son of More Than Ready covered 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:44.27, winning by 1 1/4 lengths and paying $13 as the fifth choice in the wagering. Seven horses went postward, with Wells Bayou the 2-1 favorite and Blackberry Wine second choice at 3-1.
Blackberry Wine outhustled Wells Bayou – making his first start since a fifth-place finish in a division of the G1 Arkansas Derby last May 2 – taking the early lead under Adam Beschizza and setting fractions of :25.28, :49.53 and 1:13.91 for the opening six furlongs.
Wells Bayou, who won the 2020 Louisiana Derby alone on the lead, chased throughout, while Title Ready raced in fourth, about three to four lengths behind the leader.
As Wells Bayou tried to challenge the leader, Hernandez got Title Ready rolling on the outside into the stretch and had 1 1/2 lengths to make up with a furlong to run. He gained command in the final sixteenth after a mile time of 1:38.05 and pulled away for the victory.
The win was the fifth in 25 career starts for the 6-year-old Title Ready, who was coming off a 10th-place finish behind Bodexpress in the G1 Clark and before that was seventh to Authentic in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic. Produced from Title Seeker, an unraced daughter of champion Personal Ensign, Title Ready was graded stakes placed several times but the Louisiana was his first stakes victory.
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