The 136th running of the Kentucky Derby takes place today at Churchill Downs and should be one of the most wide open fields in recent memory.  With the last minute withdrawal of pre-race favorite Eskendereya, there’s a very unusual parity among the remaining horses with no definitive favorite emerging.  Looking At Lucky was a 3-1 morning line favorite, but he’s been bet down to 9-1 as of 10:00 PM Pacific.  The current favorite is Todd Pletcher’s ‘other’ horse, Super Saver at 7-1.  That would make him an unusually high priced favorite for the Kentucky Derby, and there’s good value all throughout the twenty horse field.  With the exception of the two aforementioned horses, every other horse in the field is priced at double digit odds.  For the purpose of this analysis we’re using the current track odds from Churchill Downs–you can stay up to date on the current prices at this link:

Saturday is going to be a great day for sports betting enthusiasts with a full card of hoops, hockey and baseball along with the Kentucky Derby. Capping off the action will be what promises to be a very entertaining fight between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley. In addition to being a couple of my favorite fighters, these guys are two of the best.

This fight became Mayweather’s ‘plan b’ after negotiations to fight Manny Pacquiao broke down.  At least that’s the ‘party line’, but I’m of the opinion that the delay in putting together the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight was by design with both sides thinking that the bout would be much more lucrative with more buildup and another fight for each man.  Should Mayweather beat Mosley, you can start making plans for a trip to Las Vegas this fall to watch him take on Pacquiao.

The Kentucky Oaks is in the books, and the favorite Blind Luck took the lillies as she came from dead last in the field to catch Evening Jewel at the wire.  It was a photo finish, with Blind Luck winning by a nose in the 136th running of the Kentucky Oaks.  The Oaks is the traditional Friday ‘warm up act’ for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, and Blind Luck’s win in the 1 1/8 mile Grade 1 stakes race for three year old fillies earned her owners a cool half million dollars.

Despite the forboding weather predicted for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, the 136th running of the Kentucky Oaks should have sunny skies and warm temperatures.  The $500,000 Grade 1 stakes race over 1 1/2 miles is the 11th race on Friday’s card at Churchill Downs with a scheduled post time of 5:45 PM Eastern/2:45 PM Pacific.  Everyone knows that the Derby is called ‘The Run For The Roses’, but the winner of the Kentucky Oaks will receive a garland of lillies.

KENTUCKY OAKS

The favorite for the race is Blind Luck, a 6-5 morning line choice, and many feel that she’s overwhelmingly the best horse in the field.  She’s off of two impressive performances, winning the Las Virgenes at Santa Anita and more recently the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park where she won with a blistering 104 Beyer Speed Figure.  She drew a decent starting position from post 5, and with a number of front running speed types in the race her ‘off the pace’ style sets up perfectly for a win here.  Hard to argue with her status as race favorite, and she’ll definitely be a factor.