Bet Online Horse Racing - The Perfect Blind Date
Sometimes, the online sports betting girl you take to the prom is not as good as the perfect blind date that you end up marrying and John Velazquez knows about as much as this as anybody in America today.
He lost his Kentucky Derby mount, Uncle Mo, due to illness on Friday but picked up the mount on Animal Kingdom and then guided that runner to victory in the most important race in America.
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams refers to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and the famous picture of James Dean, Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis but the broken dreams of Robby Albarado became a nightmare after the Kentucky Derby Saturday.
Albarado was thrown from his mount in the post parade for the third race at Churchill last Wednesday and suffered a broken nose and stitches over his eye and was not able to ride on either Thursday or Friday.
He was intended to ride Animal Kingdom but his owners pretty much had nothing else they could do when talking about this kind of a zenith race and when Velazquez opened up, he took the mount away from Albarado.
This happens every day at the track, but never so dramatically in front of a nation and a world.
When Uncle Mo was declared a non-starter the day before the Kentucky Derby, the whole dynamic of the race changed a bit in that there was one less speed horse to muddle the issue.
Still the pace was hot and not everybody got a decent trip but that kind of phenomenon has been going on for decades.
The reality of the fact is that without Uncle Mo in the race, the rest of the runners just flat-out were not very fast.
As for Animal Kingdom is concerned, he has now run 5 races, all solid efforts and he was winning for the first time on conventional dirt last weekend when recording the 103 Derby Beyer.
He had won his final prep, the Spiral, striding out well after the 9 furlongs, was coming off a career 94 Beyer and is in the clever hands of Graham Motion, who has won over a thousand races including 2 Breeders’ Cup events.
On a personal note, his owner Team Valor, is headed by Barry Irwin, who I’ve known for well over 30 years and had lunch with him the very first day I worked at the Racing Form in 1977.
Animal is by the turf sire Leroidesanimaux and out of Dalicia, who was sired by the 1987 Horse of the Year in Germany Acatenango.
The stamina is there for Animal Kingdom to run all day as his dam won at a mile and a quarter on grass.
Daughters of Acatenango have produced the likes of Eclair de Lune, reigning winner of the Beverly D. S. (G1); Preis der Diana (German Oaks) (Ger-G1) queen Mystic Lips; Italian Group 1 hero Querari; Group 2 victors Flamingo Fantasy and King Dancer, both placed at the Group 1 level; multiple Group 2-winning marathoner Askar Tau; and champion Turkish stayer Nash Bishop.
