There will be no Triple Crown winner and we may never see another Triple Crown winner in our lifetime.
Animal Kingdom, who would have had a big shot if he could have won the Preakness Stakes on a speed favoring track, just came up short behind the speedy and game Shackleford.
AK was gaining on the winner with every stride, but just came up short in what was a big time effort despite the loss. The bad thing about the loss is the Belmont Stakes now becomes anti-climatic from the standpoint of the talking heads but still may be a good betting race for the real fans who go out everyday for the excitement of the challenge and a shot at a nice payoff.
Speaking about payoffs, in last week’s column I wrote that Animal Kingdom was a must use first and second in the exotics. If you followed the advice you may have hit the exacta which paid $114.80 or the trifecta which paid $1,401.80. GT sports editor Mark Mayer was one of just two people at Palace Station who hit the tri. His had a $1 tri box.
If you were walking around lucky you could have hit the superfecta, which paid $3,106.30 with the dime super paying a nice $310 with no signer.
Everyday horse players like us enjoy no signers so don’t forget those dime superboxes in these big races.
There is always talk about value; what about the $4.20 place price on Animal Kingdom and the $3.60 show price? Those are rebate players dream bets. The trifecta was there for the taking with the other Asmussen horse Astrology running third. Astrology was fresh, dangerous and had that good tracking speed I talked about in this column last week.
Dialed In made his late run to round out the super, which was not that hard to hit especially if you are a dime super player like myself. Well now its on to Belmont where AK will again try and run down Shackleford in what’s becoming a good rivalry between the two.
There will be some new shooters and the return of Nehro so we will just wait and see. As always I will have all the good info right here in GT.
Interleague intrigue
We finished the first full week of Interleague as the crazy baseball season continued with teams scoring a lot of runs or no runs.
The games seemed to either fly OVER or go way UNDER. As for the divisions, well most of them are wide open and look to stay that way.
In the AL East the Yankees, Rays and the surging Red Sox are in a three way dog fight. Boston keeps sneaking its way up and is just a half game out of first place. The Sox visit Cleveland for three and this series will tell us a lot about the Indians. The Jays and the Orioles are not far behind in the AL East.
In the AL Central the Tribe has shot out to a seven game lead over the Tigers with the Royals and White Sox right behind Detroit. The Twins are far back with the worst record in baseball.
In the AL West, the Rangers, Angels, Mariners and A’s are battling in a division that will go down to the wire.
In the NL East, the Phillies are 10 games above 500 due mostly to their great pitching staff. Their bats, however, have been very silent. The Marlins are right behind only 1½ back. The Mets and Nationals look to be also-rans in this division.
In the NL Central, the Cardinals are playing well and enjoy a 2½ game advantage over the Reds. Cincinnati has gone south since losing that home series to the surprising Pirates. Milwaukee is right behind the Reds with the “buccos” just five games back. The Cubbies look to be also-rans.
In the NL West the Giants appear to be the dominant team with their pitching. The Rockies and the Diamondbacks are battling it out for second and third while the Dodgers and Padres will be also-rans.