Successfully Develop Your Road to the Roses Fantasy Stable

As more and more online fantasy games gain in popularity, you will discover the more popular ones to be Mafia Wars on Face Book as well as football and baseball fantasy games through other sites. One that is increasing in popularity is the “Road to the Roses” game, which is the “Official Fantasy Game of the Kentucky Derby”.

Road to the Roses (roadtotheroses.com) usually starts up around the beginning of March. This is a horse racing game in which you set up a virtual stable that contains Triple Crown nominated horses. Typically, you start with ten horses in your stable. As the season moves on you are able to add more horses to your stable at given times in the game. At the outset you also select two trainers and two jockeys. All of your selections are involved in real races and based on their performance they earn your fantasy stable points. Stakes races are held every weekend and you make sure five of your horses are activated for running in whatever races they might be competing in. It is a fun game, which does not take up too much of your time. Everyone competes for weekly prizes and overall standing prizes at the conclusion of the game. It ends on the first Saturday in May with the running of the Kentucky Derby.

Here are some suggestions for bolstering your chances for victory in the Road to the Roses fantasy game.

• There are only twenty horses that can start in the Kentucky Derby.  Entry is based on which horses have the top graded stakes earnings.  With that in mind, now is the time to start watching the races featuring the 2-year-old horses.
• The Kentucky Derby features only 3-year-old horses.  All thoroughbred horses turn another year older on January 1^st.  In other words the current crop of 2 year olds will be 3 on January 1^st and thereby eligible to run in the Derby.
• Only those horses nominated to the Triple Crown will be on the initial list of horses available to pick from for the Road to the Roses game.  The Triple Crown nominations usually close near the end of January.  Watch for this list and make your selections accordingly.
• There are a great number of terrific trainers with 2 year olds in their barns racing now with the hope of making it to the Derby.  You will need to pick two trainers for your fantasy stable.  Currently the best trainers with high quality 2 year old runners now include:  Steve Asmussen, Bob Baffert, Doug O’Neill, Michael Maker, Wesley Ward, D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher.  Any one of these trainers attached to your stable will bring in some points.
• Some of the leading jockeys in the world ride here in America.  Among the best are: Calvin Borel, Kent Desormeaux, Garrett Gomez, John Velazquez, Edgar Prado, Mike Smith, Ramon Dominguez, Julien LeParoux, and Robbie Albarado.  These should all be considered when assembling your two-man jockey colony.  Other jockey’s that are up and coming that could possibly get a Derby mount include: James Graham, Alan Garcia, Joe Talamo, Joel Rosario, and veteran Alex Solis.  Two female jockeys’ that could break the barrier might be A. “Rosie” Napravnik and Chantall Sutherland.  Picking two top jockey’s is important to gain some points week after week.
• Currently there are a number of 2-year-old horses that are looking very good in some of the earlier prep races.  I have compiled this short list off of two fantastic web sites; Horseracingnation.com and Bloodhorse.com.  Here are a few horses you should watch and consider (trainer in parentheses) when you set-up your stable:

American Lion (Harty)                  Buddy’s Saint (Levine)

Dave in Dixie (Sadler)                 Dublin (Lukas)

Euromillion (Block)                            Eskendereya (Pletcher)

Interactif (Pletcher)                          Iron Champ (Yanez)

Jackson Bend (Zito)                      Lookin At Lucky (Baffert)

Noble’s Promise (McPeek)               Roman’s Reward (Romans)

Rule (Pletcher)                          Super Saver (Pletcher)

Thiskyhasnolimit (Asmussen)          Vale of York (Bin Suroor)

Williams Kitten (Maker)

This short list reflects just a few of the possible 400 plus horses that will eventually be nominated to the Triple Crown.  The ones above are currently training and racing well.

• View the Horse Racing websites to follow all the 2-year-old races to gain valuable information and insight into what will be a great Road to the Roses in 2010.  The best ones to view are Horseracingnation.com, Daily Racing Form (drf.com), and Bloodhorse.com.

I hope all of these tidbits enable you to put together a successful Road to the Roses fantasy stable in the coming year.  Enjoy!  Best of Luck to you.