Road to the Roses Excitement to Begin Soon

Happy February!

The Road to the Roses Kentucky Derby Fantasy Game is scheduled to launch the second week of this month. The scoring races will begin February 20, 2010.

This exciting, free game (roadtotheroses.com) allows you to assemble a stable of Kentucky Derby hopefuls, a couple of jockeys and a couple of trainers that score points each weekend. You compete with other fantasy stables that may or may not have some of the same horses you pick.

If you have started  previewing some of the two-year-old horses last year they all turned three years old January 1^st. Like a major league baseball manager it is time to pare down your stable to ten horses.

Horses for this Kentucky Derby fantasy game are usually selected from the list of Triple Crown Nominees.  The first closing date for Triple Crown nominees was January 16, 2010.  These horses are called the original nominees.  A secondary nomination closing date is March 27, 2010.  These nominees have not yet been released to make selections for your stable.  But there are a few sites you can review to get overviews of what horses are training and running well.

Daily Racing Form (drf.com) covers the hopefuls in a tremendous way.  Writer, Dan Illman maintains a top twenty list that offers some insight and will help put a solid stable together.

Horse Racing Nation (horseracingnation.com) is a relatively new site that has great coverage of all the derby hopefuls.  This is an interactive sight where one can sign-up and weigh in on all manner of horse racing.

Bloodhorse (bloodhorse.com) has great coverage of breeding and re-caps of recent races.  The site has excellent coverage of all derby hopefuls. 

All of these sites should be utilized to draw knowledge from to put a solid list of derby hopefuls and then pare it down to your stable entrants.

To create a competitive stable mix it up with horses from different geographic areas.  Be sure to give added weight to those horses competing on dirt tracks.

Select two all-star trainers, but include in your stable horses trained by other all-star trainers.

Research the horses’ daddy.  If it was a multiple graded stakes winner, odds are likely that the horse is a strong derby prospect.  Include these guys in your stable.

Assembling a competitive stable is fun and exciting.  Following the road to the derby with all your horses is also exhilarating.  See you on the trail.