8 June 2013

"O" My, I Almost Forgot To Make My Belmont Stakes Picks

I want to first give you today's most useless fact. If Overanalyze wins, it would mean that this year's Triple Crown was won by three separate horses with names that begin with the letter "O." I did some real quick research (by real quick, I mean, I could have missed something because I was barely awake at the time) and found that there have been four Kentucky Derby winners whose name started with "O": Orb, Omaha (who won the Triple Crown in 1935), Omar Kayyam (1917) and Old Rosebud (1914). When it comes to The Preakness, there has been three: Oxbow, Omaha, and Old England (1902). Finally, The Belmont has produced only two so far: Omaha and One Count (1952). In case you were wondering, yes, President Barack Obama is the only President whose name begins with "O."

So what are the odds that three separate individual horses win the 2013 Triple Crown with names beginning with "0" in a year that also has a President also has a name beginning with "O": Right now, it is around 15-1 (Overanalyze's probable post time odds with takeout taken into consideration). What was the chances 8 years ago? Probably something in the neighborhood of a few billion to one.

Anyway, I'm not going to Overanalyze the Belmont, here are my picks:

Vyjack: I heard his trainer has been cold (maybe he is just nervous being under a microscope), but I do like the odds. Vyjack didn't take to Kentucky slop, but he seems to like NY soup. Hey, the track may dry out by race time, but he likes a fast track too.

Orb: Hated him in the Preakness. But he does look like he has an edge here. Figure wise and recency he rates well. He did win in the slop too, in case you forgot.

Will Take Charge: My gut feeling is that we are going to see the horse who won the Rebel today at a juicy price.

Oxbow: As long as the track is somewhat favorable to early speed or even fair, he should last to be a piece of the pie today.



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