Here’s a rundown of the contenders, with picks at the bottom.  Good luck to all! Archarcharch:  This winner of the Arkansas Derby is a decent horse, but wondering if the extra distance could be an issue here.  He just held off a fast closing Nehro.  Nice to see Jon Court get a Derby mount finally. [...]

If you’re not going to make it to Kentucky this year for the most exciting 2 minutes in sports, there are a few options for celebrating around town. First, the obvious: Hastings Park is going to be going live from Churchill Downs starting at 8:30am. Doors open at 8:00am and the Kentucky Derby is Race [...]

Here’s the field for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby.  The post time will be around 3:24 PM (PST). # Horse Odds Jockey Wgt A/S M/E Trainer 1 Archarcharch (KY) 10/1 Jon Kenton Court 126 3 C L William H. Fires 2 Brilliant Speed (FL) 30/1 Joel Rosario 126 3 C LA Thomas Albertrani [...]

5 more days until the crowds start filling the infield at Churchill Downs.  Here are the latest odds from the Wynn casino in Las Vegas (thanks to Jennie Rees of the Louisville Courier Journal for posting): As expected, we have Dialed In as the favourite, with Uncle Mo and Nehro also tabbed at lower odds. [...]

It’s that time of year again when everyone wonders if we’ll see another Triple Crown winner.  Every year’s Derby field has its share of pretenders, contenders, and live longshots.  In 2011, we don’t have any clear favourite.  Up until the running of the Wood Memorial, it was assumed that Uncle Mo would take the bulk [...]

I had my money on Tommy Danzigger on the 7th and Romancin Traveller, the DQ’ed horse in the 8th–watch out for this three-year-old when he gets a few more races under his belt–so I’d rather focus on my otherwise pleasant Easter Friday with friends at Silks, Hastings clubhouse restaurant, where we had the view of the race from the window and our monitor.

Hastings Park had their first stakes race on Friday, the George Royal. Noosa Beach, an invader from Seattle, briefly stalked the front-running Sassou before leading the field to the finish line in 1:16. He won by a comfortable length over Senor Rojo.

Hastings has its first stakes race of the year today,  The George Royal Stakes for 50k.  We’ve got a field of 9 after 3 scratches.  The quality of this field is very good, with winners of the 2010 Premier’s and Longacres Mile both running (Senor Rojo and Noosa Beach). 7th Race – Hastings – Friday, [...]

–Check out Dustin Hoffman in this preview of Michael Mann’s HBO series about horseracing, Luck. –Hastings is offering two deals via Groupon: for one of them, $25 buys you a box seat, a $10 food voucher, and six programs–a $60 value! –Nuj Nuj Wink Wink, who won yesterday at Hastings, also won at Turf Paradise [...]

This will be a regular column for racing picks.  I’ll try to post in the morning of the race.  We’ll stick to win, place, and show wagers for now.  It’ll be mostly picks for Hastings Racecourse, but also for big races like the Kentucky Derby (only 3 weeks away).  Here’s our Sunday play for Hastings: [...]

There was an impressive turnout (pre-Whitecaps crowd?) on a cool Vancouver spring day for opening day at Hastings. It felt like the first day of school and it was nice to see all the familiar faces (even though I know only a handful by name): horsemen, graybeard punters, and hipsters in modish hats. The free [...]

Fancy hats and fedoras were on display today as a good sized crowd turned out on a brisk but sunny opening day at Hastings Racecourse. The track put together a solid card, including a $75,000 optional claiming feature for 3 year-olds won by Riversedge Racing Stables’ Bond James Bond, who was the champion 2 year-old [...]

Following Kevin L’s report on Clockers Corners, here are some pics:  

This morning, a healthy crowd of racetrack fans gathered at Hastings Park for a little preview of the upcoming meet.  The mood was upbeat and optimistic, despite the rainy weather.   In addition to workouts from a few horses, Hastings gave a brief overview of changes for the 2011 season.  Of particular note: Increased purses [...]