The Friday Show | Horse Racing Free Tips

The Friday Show Presented By Breeders’ Cup: Hoping To ‘Raise The Bar’ With Our Handicapping

If trainer Bob Baffert can do it, so can we. Days after the Hall of Famer pledged to “raise the bar” in hopes that his high-powered stable can avoid any more failed drug tests (Baffert has had four of them them in three states this year), the Paulick Report gang is inspired to up our game, too. Full disclosure: publisher Ray Paulick is the only known Paulick Report staffer to have flunked a drug test, and the statute of limitations on that transgression have long passed.

We haven't hired any spinmeisters, lawyers or veterinarians, but we've consulted with some of the smartest people we know to help us unravel the daunting handicapping challenges that lie ahead in the five Future Stars Friday races and nine championship events on Saturday that comprise this year's Breeders' Cup at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

The aforementioned Paulick, along with editor in chief Natalie Voss, bloodstock editor Joe Nevills and news editor and pony rider to the European stars Chelsea Hackbarth share their astute observations about this year's Breeders' Cup. We think they're astute, but it just might be the scopolamine talking.

If that's not enough, track announcer Larry Collmus, who will call the Breeders' Cup for NBC Sports, offers some insights into how he prepares for this big event and recounts a past race call that caused him to age several years in a matter of minutes.

You don't want to miss this week's Friday Show.

The post The Friday Show Presented By Breeders’ Cup: Hoping To ‘Raise The Bar’ With Our Handicapping appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Friday Show Presented By Breeders’ Cup: The World Comes To Kentucky

There is always a lot to absorb when pre-entries for the Breeders' Cup world championships are announced, and this year was no exception. Multiple oversubscribed fields – especially in the turf contests – will make handicapping many of the 14 races at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 6-7 a serious challenge.

In this week's Friday Show, Paulick Report bloodstock editor Joe Nevills and news editor Chelsea Hackbarth (who will be pulling double duty next week aboard her pony escorting international horses to the racetrack for training) join Ray Paulick to discuss the races and horses they are looking forward to the most and how the results of key races may impact Horse of the Year voting later this year.

Will the winner of the $6-million Classic get an automatic Horse of the Year vote, or are there some scenarios that would allow for someone from another division – possibly Swiss Skydiver or Monomoy Girl from the filly/mare ranks or juvenile sensation Jackie's Warrior – an opportunity to get enough support?

Watch this week's Friday Show below.

The post The Friday Show Presented By Breeders’ Cup: The World Comes To Kentucky appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Double Your Triple Crown Pleasure

It's not every day you have a chance to watch not one, but two horses race for Triple Crown glory. But that's what we have this weekend as the one-eyed wonder, Mighty Heart, goes for Canada's Triple Crown in Saturday's Breeders' Stakes from Woodbine, and some eight hours later Contrail bids to become Japan's eighth Triple Crown winner in the Kikuka Sho from Kyoto Race Course.

The Canadian Triple Crown requires versatility, going from the synthetic Tapeta track at Woodbine, to dirt at Fort Erie, then returning to Woodbine for the mile and one-half Breeders' Stakes on the E.P. Taylor turf course. Mighty Heart, trained by Josie Carroll, won the first leg with a 13-1 wire-to-wire upset, then scored as the favorite from off the pace at Fort Erie.

Contrail tries to follow in the Triple Crown-winning footsteps of his sire, the Sunday Silence stallion Deep Impact. He won the Oka Sho at a mile in April, cruised in the 1 1/2-mile Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) at 1 1/2 miles this summer and now stretches out for the 1 7/8-mile Kikuka Sho, referred to as the Japanese St. Leger.

In this week's Friday Show, publisher Ray Paulick and editor in chief Natalie Voss discuss the merits of these two horses and other Triple Crown challenges from around the racing world.

Watch this week's Friday Show below.

The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Double Your Triple Crown Pleasure appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Riding Crop Talk With Mike Smith

Mike Smith calls it his “last-ditch effort” to protect his fellow riders and the horses on which the sport depends. As a Hall of Famer, the all-time leading Breeders' Cup jockey and co-chair of the Jockeys' Guild, Smith, 55, is speaking out about restrictions on the use of the riding crop he believes are putting jockeys and horses at increased risk.

Smith has written to the California Horse Racing Board urging its members to reconsider changes recently put in place. And this week he joins publisher Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss on the Friday Show to elaborate on those concerns.

“I'm all for change, and I'm all for helping,” Smith said of the need for some riding crop reforms. “I want to make sure the horse is as safe as possible, because the only time I'm safe is if the horse is safe. If I put that horse in any danger, guess who's next? I hit the ground right after he does. That's my life that's out there, not the spectators and not anyone else that's not on that horse's back.”

And that's the dilemma horse racing faces. Can the sport successfully tackle public perception issues related to the riding crop while still giving riders the tool they say they need to remain safe and to give horse owners and gamblers a fair and honest run for their money?

“As long as we can show that we're doing the best that we can, that we're keeping (the horses) safe, that we're not harming them, that it's protection for us as well, that's all we can do,” Smith said.

Watch this week's Friday Show below and let us know what you think on this subject.

The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Riding Crop Talk With Mike Smith appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post