Triple Crown Horse Betting Strategy - Ranking the Top 10 New 3-year-old Thoroughbreds for 2014
While a horse can make its owner, jockey and trainer very rich by simply winning non-Triple Crown races, that is where the real money is. And if a talented horse can bag all three of the Triple Crown events, breeding and stud fees can be astronomical. But each year there is a whole new crop of 3-year-old thoroughbreds which can qualify for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. So an intelligent Triple Crown horse betting strategy is to get a handle on the ability levels, strengths and weaknesses of these new 3-year-olds each year before the odds at the betting window catch up to their talent. That is exactly the strategy we are going to attempt to employ this season, and here is how we have our Top 10 ranked.
Honor Code and Shared Belief look to be the best of this new 3-year-old bunch, and we have them tied at the top spot of new Triple Crown hopefuls for 2014. Honor Code has great lineage as the son of A.P. Indy, and is being trained by Shug McGaughey, who directed Orb to a victorious Kentucky Derby in 2013. He pulled a worst to first victory in his debut at Saratoga, completing 2013 with a win in the Remsen at 1 1/8 miles. Shared Belief is just as strong in our belief, winning his three starts by more than 20 links to finish with an unbeaten season. His 2014 debut at the Robert L. Lewis Stakes on February 8 at Santa Anita will reveal a lot.
In the third spot, Strong Mandate looks good coming into the Triple Crown run of 2014 with two career wins at Saratoga. One of those impressive victories was the Hopeful Stakes. The last Kentucky Derby winner that won the previous Hopeful Stakes was the great Affirmed in 1977-78. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas means the horse will definitely be ready this year, and at number four we like Havana, the horse, not the city. With Todd Pletcher in the corner, every bit of Havana's talent will be realized, with the horse opening with a rather substantial Saratoga victory, following that up with a victory in the Champagne and a strong second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile from outside.
At five through seven on our list we show Financial Mogul, Rise Up and Tapiture. FM has tallied a second to Cairo Prince in the Nashua at one mile, as well as a maiden win at Saratoga in the mud for trainer Rick Violette. Rise Up easily won the $1 million Delta Jackpot, which has produced multiple dominant three-year-olds in its short history. And Tapiture showed during the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs that he will definitely be in the Triple Crown mix this year. At number eight we have Cool Samurai (son of First Samurai), a stretch runner trained by John Shirreffs, who also conditioned Zenyatta and Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo.
You can place both Cairo Prince and Samraat in a tie for the last two spots in our list of new 3-year-old thoroughbreds which will compete strongly in the Triple Crown lineup of thoroughbred horse races this year. Cairo Prince nearly took the Remsen before conceding to Honor Code, but was giving up 6 pounds in that race. And Samraat could be one of those rare and raw horses which goes on to become legendary. The 17 length win the horse pulled off in the Damon Runyon Stakes to remain unbeaten in three starts was impressive to say the least. The Triple Crown horse betting strategy we used here was to look for new talent coming on board which may fly under the radar of race bookmakers, and provide excellent betting odds for the 2014 Triple Crown races.
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