SEE WHOM THE PEDIGREE EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN. 2012 TRIPLE CROWN PREVIEW Watch for Triple Crown Pedigree Profiles from The Blood-Horse, coming soon! BloodHorse.com SPECIAL DIGITAL REPORT Triple Crown 2012 PREVIEW Previews of the Top 40 Triple Crown contenders to watch, including: STEVE HASkin’S RATINGS AND COMMENTS ANALYSIS and “CONTENDER VS. PRETENDER” EVALUATION FROM TRIPLE CROWN Talk’S JASON SHANDLER TRUENICKS PEDIGREE RATING HELPFUL FACTS AND STATS TO KNOW ABOUT THE CONTENDERS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS COMPLETE BRIS PAST PERFORMANCES A 4-CROSS PEDIGREE CHART FOR EACH RUNNER DOSAGE PROFILE Visit BloodHorse.com/TripleCrown for complete Triple Crown coverage Past Performances provided by 1 WHO WILL THE PEDIGREE EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN? 2012 TRIPLE CROWN PREVIEW Find out in the 2012 Triple Crown Pedigree Profiles. Pre-order now! CONTENTS Horses Indexed by Haskin’s numerical RATING STEVE HASKIN is an award-winning Turf writer renowned for his INTRODUCTION 3 .............................................. Kentucky Derby commentary. He has been a senior correspondent GLOSSARY .................................................... 3 at The Blood-Horse since 1998. When he decided in 2011 to list the ALGORITHMS .......................................................5 top 60 or 70 3-year-olds as sort of a guide leading up to his “Derby ALPHA.................................................................6 Dozen” and “Derby Trail” columns featured in the magazine and on BATTLE HARDENED ..............................................7 BloodHorse.com, he felt assigning a rating to each horse would be BODEMEISTER .....................................................8 useful. He used a scale of 1-10, based on several factors, including performance, pedigree, and the visual impressiveness of the horses’ BROTHER FRANCIS ...............................................9 races. CASTAWAY.........................................................10 CASUAL TRICK ...................................................11 9 6 5 CONSORTIUM.....................................................12 ALGORITHMS BATTLE HARDENED BROTHER FRANCIS CREATIVE CAUSE ................................................13 CREATIVE CAUSE BODEMEISTER CASUAL TRICK CURRENCY SWAP ...............................................14 UNION RAGS CASTAWAY CONSORTIUM DADDY NOSE BEST .............................................15 DADDY NOSE BEST MIDNIGHT TRANSFER DISCREET DANCER .............................................16 8 DONE TALKING MR. PRANKSTER DONE TALKING ...................................................17 EL PADRINO EMPIRE WAY PROSPECTIVE DULLAHAN.........................................................18 OUT OF BOUNDS EVER SO LUCKY RECKLESS JERRY EL PADRINO .......................................................19 SABERCAT LIAISON ROUSING SERMON MOTOR CITY EMPIRE WAY ......................................................20 7 MR. BOWLING EVER SO LUCKY .................................................21 ALPHA MY ADONIS 4 FED BIZ .............................................................22 DISCREET DANCER SHARED PROPERTY CURRENCY SWAP GEMOLOGIST .....................................................23 DULLAHAN SPRING HILL FARM MARK VALESKI HANSEN ............................................................24 FED BIZ TAKE CHARGE INDY RUSSIAN GREEK I’ll HAVE ANOTHER ............................................25 GEMOLOGIST Z DAGER HANSEN LIAISON.............................................................26 I’ll HAVE ANOTHER MARK VALESKI ..................................................27 SOUPER SPEEDY MIDNIGHT TRANSFER .........................................28 MOTOR CITY ......................................................29 MR. BOWLING ....................................................30 MR. PRANKSTER ................................................31 Horses Indexed by SHANDLER’S ANALYSIS MY ADONIS .......................................................32 OUT OF BOUNDS .................................................33 JASON SHANDLER has been a staff writer at The Blood-Horse PROSPECTIVE ....................................................34 since 2007, but he’s been a sportswriter for 12 years. Before moving to RECKLESS JERRY ...............................................35 Lexington, he worked at the Norristown Times-Herald outside Phila- delphia. He is featured weekly on the BloodHorse.com video “That ROUSING SERMON .............................................36 Handicapping Show” and is the author of the blogs “Triple Crown RUSSIAN GREEK ................................................37 Talk” and “Breeders’ Cup Chat.” Shandler’s work also has been fea- SABERCAT .........................................................38 tured on ESPN.com and NTRA.com. SHARED PROPERTY ............................................39 SOUPER SPEEDY ................................................40 Best of the Best Modest Threat Questionable SPRING HILL FARM ............................................41 UNION RAGS BATTLE HARDENED BROTHER FRANCIS TAKE CHARGE INDY ............................................42 BODEMEISTER CASTAWAY CREATIVE CAUSE CASUAL TRICK UNION RAGS ......................................................43 Top Contender DADDY NOSE BEST CONSORTIUM Z DAGER ............................................................44 ALGORITHMS DISCREET DANCER CURRENCY SWAP BRISNET.COM (Advertisement) .......................... 45 ALPHA EMPIRE WAY DONE TALKING ALL TRIPLE CROWN NOMINEES ........................ 46 EL PADRINO EVER SO LUCKY DULLAHAN KENTUCKY DERBY HISTORY ............................ 56 FED BIZ GEMOLOGIST MARK VALESKI PREAKNESS STAKES HISTORY ......................... 57 SABERCAT HANSEN MIDNIGHT TRANSFER Z DAGER I’ll HAVE ANOTHER MR. PRANKSTER BELMONT STAKES HISTORY ............................ 58 LIAISON MY ADONIS CHURCHILL DOWNS TRACK INFORMATION .......... 59 MOTOR CITY RECKLESS JERRY PIMLICO TRACK INFORMATION ........................ 60 MR. BOWLING RUSSIAN GREEK BELMONT TRACK INFORMATION ...................... 61 OUT OF BOUNDS SOUPER SPEEDY PROSPECTIVE Cover photo by Courtney Bearse ROUSING SERMON Photos by Benoit & Associates, Michael Burns, Coady Photography, Adam SHARED PROPERTY Coglianese, Tom Cooley, Anne M. Eberhardt, Equi-Photo, Four Footed Fotos, SPRING HILL FARM Hodges Photography, Mathea Kelley, Pat Lang, Reed Palmer/Churchill Downs, TAKE CHARGE INDY Rick Samuels, Vassar Photography Past Performances provided by 2 WHO WILL THE PEDIGREE EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN? 2012 TRIPLE CROWN PREVIEW Find out in the 2012 Triple Crown Pedigree Profiles. Pre-order now! Introduction THE TRIPLE CROWN TRAIL is a winding road with many ob- Steve Haskin of “Derby Dozen” and “Hangin’ with Haskin” fame stacles. Potential runners must prove themselves capable at three dis- reviews each contender’s chances and assigns his own 1 to 10 rating— 1 tances—1 ⁄4 miles for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands where 10 is Steve’s prediction that the horse not only will run but also 1 (gr. I), 9 ⁄2 furlongs for the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), and the near-mar- be in contention down the stretch, and 1 means that the horse is an 1 athon 1 ⁄2 miles for the Belmont Stakes (gr. I). Contenders must stay elite sophomore that needs a breakthrough before Derby Day to be sound during a rigorous schedule of races against the top 3-year-olds considered a top contender. in the nation. Trainers must balance keeping their horses strong and Jason Shandler, author of “Triple Crown Talk”—also known for conditioned with maintaining soundness, all while trying to ensure his no-nonsense persona on “That Handicapping Show”—serves as a a fresh horse at the start of a grueling five-week, three-race series. counterpoint to Steve. Jason provides his own rating and analysis on An additional challenge for trainers and owners is a need for graded each sophomore runner. stakes earnings—the 20 coveted spots in the Churchill Downs start- Profile pages include a wealth of data. Correspondent Joe Depaolo ing gate are occupied by those with the most graded earnings. Now compiled several interesting facts about each contender. Four-gen- consider questions of pedigree, conformation, and aptitude and the eration pedigree boxes are provided by The Jockey Club Informa- task of predicting the final Derby field is made more daunting. Even tion Systems’ equineline.com service, while BRISnet.com past-per- Thoroughbred enthusiasts find that springtime intro- formance charts (“PPs”) summarize the subject duces a slew of new potential runners. horses’ race careers to date. Ten weeks out from the May 5 kickoff to the Tri- Shorter statistical overviews starting on page ple Crown, this special report from BloodHorse.com is 46 show race records and best performance, the lon- an early-season guide to the most promising sophomores gest distance the horse has won, and several quantita- that are likely to have an impact in the Derby, Preakness, tive figures for all 2012 Triple Crown nominees. One- and Belmont. In these pages you’ll be introduced to 40 top page reviews of past winners of the Derby, Preakness, and 3-year-olds that appear headed toward one of the American Belmont provide some perspective, and brief histories of classic races. the host tracks round out the Triple Crown preview. Glossary Triple Crown Mania BROODMARE SIRE: The sire of a horse’s For a complete list of 2011 Triple Crown Nominations, go to dam (i.e., maternal grandfather) http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/triple-crown-mania/nominations COLOR: Abbreviations are