BELMONT STAKES

Here, below (thanks to NBC) is a video of the running of the Belmont States.

It was an exciting race, with RULER ON ICE (an unheralded longshot, but with top ancestry -- he's the grandson of Fusaichi Pegasus, the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner) coming in first, followed closely by the next two finishers, STAY THIRSTY and BRILLIANT SPEED.

The race was decided only in the last few seconds, with Shackleford, winner of the Preakness, leading most of the race, but then fading to fifth in the final quarter mile. Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner and Monzon bumped into each other shortly after the start of the race, nearly unseating jockey John Velazquez on Animal Kingdom, and almost dumping the horse. After horse and rider recovered, Animal Kingdom made a race for the front, but only reached sixth place.

RESULTS AT THE FINISH OF THE BELMONT

 1 - RULER ON ICE (#3) 24-1
 2 - STAY THIRSTY (#2)
 3 - BRILLIANT SPEED (#5)
 4 - NEHRO
 5 - Shackleford
 6 - Animal Kingdom
 7 - Mucho Macho Man
 8 - Santiva
 9 - Monzon
10 - Master of Hounds
11 - Prime Cut
12 - Isn't He Perfect

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

LINKS

QPORIT - ON THE PREAKNESS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2011/05/preakness.html

QPORIT - ON THE KENTUCKY DERBY
AFTER: http://qporit.blogspot.com/2011/05/kentucky-derby-2011.html
BEFORE: http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/05/mint-julep-for-kentucky-derby-2010.html

RULER ON ICE - RACING NATION
http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Ruler_On_Ice

FUSAICHI PEGASUS - WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusaichi_Pegasus

OFFICIAL BELMONT SITE (SEE RACE 11)
http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqb4x9ProgramDisplay.cfm?TRK=BEL&CY=USA&DATE=06/11/2011&STYLE=BEL#11

KENTUCKY DERBY 2011 -- with the NBC VIDEO OF THE RACE!

Here's the running of the 2011 Kentucky Derby, from NBC:

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Animal Kingdom at (20-1) comes in first, ridden by John Velasquez (who had been  scheduled to ride the scratched favorite Uncle Mo ).

FINAL ORDER OF FINISH:

 1 - Animal Kingdom - John Velasquez

 2 - Nehro
 3 - Mucho Macho Man
 4 - Shackleford
 5 - Master of Hounds 6 - Santiva 7 - Brilliant Speed 8 - Dialed In 9 - Pants on Fire10 - Twice the Appeal11 - Soldat12 - Stay Thirsty13 - Derby Kitten14 - Decisive Moment15 - Archarcharch16 - Midnight Interlude17 - Twinspired18 - Watch Me Go19 - Comma to the Top

= 0 =

The FIRST SATURDAY IN MAY is the running of the Kentucky Derby, the first of the TRIPLE CROWN races (The Preakness, and the Belmont are the next two). No horse has won all three races since 1978 when Affirmed won, ridden by jockey Steve Cauthen and trained by Laz Barrera. The other triple crown winners are listed below.

The Kentucky Derby is also the start (and sometimes the end) of the Mint Julep season. See below for my recipe for a mint julep. Note that after drinking a mint julep it is recommended NOT to drive heavy machinery --- or a horse.

Pre-pre-Race coverage was on VS.

Pre-Race coverage began at 4:00 on NBC.

5:27 PM - May 7, 2011 - Final countdown now to riders up; parade to the post; and running of the 2011 Kentucky Derby: 

Here is the official site for the Kentucky Derby, and the official list of horses:

OFFICIAL SITE

http://www.kentuckyderby.com

THE HORSES

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/horses

HERE'S A LIST OF THE HORSES:

 1- ARCHARCHARCH

 2- BRILLIANT SPEED

 3- TWICE THE APPEAL

 4- STAY THIRSTY

 5- DECISIVE MOMENT

 6- COMMA TO THE TOP

 7- PANTS ON FIRE

 8- DIALED IN

 9- DERBY KITCHEN

10- TWINSPIRED

11- MASTER OF HOUNDS

12- SANTIVA

13- MUCHO MACHO MAN

14- SHACKEFORD

15- MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE

16- ANIMAL KINGDOM

17- SOLDAT

18- n/a

19- NEHRO

20- WATCH ME GO

CURRENT FAVORITES at 4:30 PM -- The odds have shifted a bit since 2:00

8 - DIALED IN 5-1

Jockey - Julien Leparoux

Trainer - Nick Zito

7 - PANTS ON FIRE 7-1

Jockey - Rosie Napravnik

Trainer - Kelly Breen

15 - MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE 8-1

Jockey - Victor Espinoza

Trainer - Bob Baffert

13 - MUCHO MACHO MAN 9-1

Jockey - Rajiv Maragh

Trainer - Kathy Ritvo

3 - TWICE THE APPEAL 10-1

Jockey - Calvin Borel

Trainer - Jeff Bonde

19 - NEHRO 10-1

Jockey - Corey Nakatani

Trainer - Steve Asmussen

CURRENT FAVORITES at 2:00 PM

8 - DIALED IN 5-1

Jockey - Julien Leparoux

Trainer - Nick Zito

3 - TWICE THE APPEAL 9-1

Jockey - Calvin Borel

Trainer - Jeff Bonde

13 - MUCHO MACHO MAN 9-1

Jockey - Rajiv Maragh

Trainer - Kathy Ritvo

15 - MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE 10-1

Jockey - Victor Espinoza

Trainer - Bob Baffert

19 - NEHRO 10-1

Jockey - Corey Nakatani

Trainer - Steve Asmussen

TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS (Year - Horse - Jockey):

1919 - Sir Barton - Johnny Loftus

1930 - Gallant Fox - Earl Sande

1935 - Omaha - Willie Saunders

1937 - War Admiral - Charley Kurtsinger

1941 - Whirlaway - Eddie Arcaro

1943 - Count Fleet - Johnny Longden

1946 - Assault - Warren Mehrtens

1948 - Citation - Eddie Arcaro

1973 - Secretariat - Ron Turcotte

1977 - Seattle Slew - Jean Cruguet

1978 - Affirmed - Steve Cauthen

MINT JULEP


Here's how you make a wicked MJ. (Note: Don't drive or ride a horse or operate heavy machinery after this; don't ingest with anything that will exceed your tolerance for total number of chemicals in the body!) Boil a little bit of water and then put it in a cup with some washed and dried, torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves, to create a strong mint tea. (Note: Mint leaves are not always that easy to get, and when you get a bunch, many leaves are often wilted, or blackened. It's important to select the best leaves even if that is only a fraction of the bunch of mint in the package.)
 
Add quite a bit of sugar. (Optionally -- ideally, in fact -- some sugar could be replaced with a half jigger of a sweet liqueur like Cointreau, Drambuie, or Grand Marnier.) Add about a half jigger of a good Kentucky Bourbon. (After trying quite I few, I found that my favorite is definitely Maker's Mark.) Add this mixture with some additional torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves to ice in a crusher.

Crush the mixture of sweetened mint tea, and bourbon to make a tall glass worth of flavored crushed ice. Take a tall, chilled glass, add a long straw, fill the glass with the crushed ice, and then pour in a jigger more bourbon to fill up the cracks. Turn on the pre-race show, and enjoy it!

It's matter of taste what you eat with the drink, if anything. My own preference is Greek or similar appetizers. In the New York area, Molyvos probably has the best selection of appetizers I know of. Near Carnegie Hall, they do provide food to go if that's how you want to enjoy the Derby.

Tweet this story!

MINT JULEP FOR THE KENTUCKY DERBY - 2010

The Kentucky Derby, of course, is the first Saturday in May. That's today!

The Derby broadcast is on NBC beginning at 4:00 PM.

It's a wet track. The favorites seem to be (as of now) Lookin At Lucky, Super Saver, Sidney's Candy and Ice Box (all with odds around 8-1 or 10-1), but how often does the favorite there actually win?

Here's the official site:

www.kentuckyderby.com

I've been watching the KD on TV every year for a long time. And I learned how to make a killer mint julep. I'd love to visit Churchill Downs for the race some day. But, in fact, I've never, ever been to a live horse race, not even at Belmont, which is not too far away from me. I must do that one of these days.

I've always tried to have a mint julep (MJ) on KD day. That's how I discovered Ruth Reichl (for a while the NYT food critic). In the early 90's she was a food critic in LA. On a business trip I knew I would be somewhere south of LA on derby day. I needed my MJ. I noticed an article she had written in the LA Times Magazine about new fine restaurants in California, and I found one that was near where I'd be. When I went there on KD day, they didn't know how to make a mint julep, but they were nice enough to try to follow my instructions, and when the first one didn't quite work, tried again and came up with something memorable, together with a really good meal. I've followed R Reichl ever since.

Here's how you make a wicked MJ. (Note: Don't drive or ride a horse or operate heavy machinery after this; don't ingest with anything that will exceed your tolerance for total number of chemicals in the body!) Boil a little bit of water and then put it in a cup with some washed and dried, torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves, to create a strong mint tea. (Note: Mint leaves are not always that easy to get, and when you get a bunch, many leaves are often wilted, or blackened. It's important to select the best leaves even if that is only a fraction of the bunch of mint in the package.)

Add quite a bit of sugar. (Optionally -- ideally, in fact -- some sugar could be replaced with a half jigger of a sweet liqueur like Cointreau, Drambuie, or Grand Marnier.) Add about a half jigger of a good Kentucky Bourbon. (After trying quite I few, I found that my favorite is definitely Maker's Mark.) Add this mixture with some additional torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves to ice in a crusher.

Crush the mixture of sweetened mint tea, and bourbon to make a tall glass worth of flavored crushed ice. Take a tall, chilled glass, add a long straw, fill the glass with the crushed ice, and then pour in a jigger more bourbon to fill up the cracks. Turn on the pre-race show, and enjoy it!

It's matter of taste what you eat with the drink, if anything. My own preference is Greek or similar appetizers. In the New York area, Molyvos probably has the best selection of appetizers I know of. Near Carnegie Hall, they do provide food to go if that's how you want to enjoy the Derby.

I enjoy the race, by the way, but to make the race better (since it only lasts two minutes, after all), enhancing it with slow motion replays and particular horses isolated in the picture (the more the better) is a way of greatly extending the experience. I hope the TV broadcast does a lot of that.