In the modern world of horse racing, betting on the sport has gradually become an exercise in gatekeeping and constantly steepening the learning curve. Any casual fan that looks at the Daily Racing Form now will immediately be confused, and this is by design; the people who already know how to read it stand a better chance of making money, and they’d rather keep it that way.
Category: Blog Posts
Top Ten Travers Stakes of the 21st Century
Since the turn of the millennium, Saratoga has provided 20 runnings of the Travers Stakes, the unofficial fourth leg of the Triple Crown and final classic test for three-year-olds. Some renditions have reaffirmed the stars of the Triple Crown trail, while others have established new runners as the ones to beat as the season wears on. Champions have been crowned, rising stars have shone and disappointed, and massive upsets have turned the racing world on its head.
Every now and again, it’s important to look back on the history of the sport in order to appreciate events to come. On the eve of the 2020 Travers, let’s look back on the 10 greatest Travers Stakes of the last 20 years.
Entering the Graveyard
On an obscure afternoon last August, I was exhausted and couldn’t have been happier. My family had made the annual early morning drive from Long Island to Saratoga Springs, New York. The drive upstate had brought me from a couch in Oceanside to the gleaming white fence surrounding the paddock at Saratoga Racecourse, and I considered it a significant improvement in scenery. As I watched the horses walk around in preparation for the fourth race that day, an old man walked up to me and struck up a conversation.
Can Gamine Beat the Law?
This past weekend, in a world desperately wandering from distraction to distraction in a particularly dark time, Belmont Park provided, as it always does for those in need. However, as the day came to a close, only two horses remained on the minds of many as they begrudgingly flipped the channel back to the news.
Before the tenth race, all six NYRA handicappers selected three-year-old colt Tiz the Law to win the Belmont Stakes. At 4-5, he entered as one of the heaviest Belmont favorites of the decade, tied with California Chrome and Justify while only entering the gate five cents behind American Pharoah. All three of them were contending for the Triple Crown, while he was merely entering the first leg. There was a world of expectations for him, but he lived up to the hype.
Welcome
My name is Patrick Moquin, and I’d like to introduce you to Paddy’s Picks, a website I will stop referring to as a horse racing blog as soon as I can think of a classier name for it. Here, I’ll be doing as much racing analysis as I possibly can while also sharing the occasional thought on certain facets of the sport of kings.