The rain held off, the track was fast, and on this relatively cool spring day in Baltimore, Oxbow pulled off the 15-1 Preakness upset!

Welcome to the most tubular (to the max) preview of the 2013 Preakness! We will take a radical and gnarly look at this year’s field! Like totally, let’s go!

It’s almost here! The first Saturday in May where millions upon millions of dollars are wagered on the biggest race of the year! As my friend Eric always says, there are many ways to slice up the handicapping pie. Are you a pace ‘capper, a trip ‘capper, a speed ‘capper, or do you just pick by name? Do you prefer gray horses or jockey silks colors? Well I’ll give you my analysis of this year’s Kentucky Derby – Dark Horse Style!

Despite what Dead Heat Debates’ Laura Pugh may say, Orb is the obvious choice to win the Kentucky Derby.

While there isn’t any possible chance that I’ve been to as many race tracks as Brian Zipse, I recently added two more to my list.

In my final act in covering Chicago racing on a full-time basis, here are my choices for the 2012 Illinois Champions! Let’s see how my selections compare to that of Mr. Zipse at the Track! The way the voting works here is that you provide your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best selections for each category. Then points are awarded on a 5-3-1 basis and totaled up to see who wins. Finally you write-in your vote for Illinois horse of the year! Here we go…

I’m sure most of you remember the one hit wonder “Closing Time” by the band Semisonic, right? In that song there is a line that states, “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end…” Well very recently I took a new job in the Richmond, Virginia area and with that, my time as the Chicago Dark Horse has come to an end. However all is not lost…there is a new beginning…

I have decided to join the parade on "best of" lists and will share with you my own list of my favorite moments from the world of Chicago racing in 2012. Here we go!

Yes, recent events in the news have been difficult to believe, understand, and comprehend. It shows that we may not be as far along as a society as most of us would like to be. Still, through all of the pain and strife in this world it’s good to know that there are a few good souls attempting to do the right thing. In this case, I’d like to focus on a horse named Silver Option, and a colt named Magna Fortuna and his amazing journey to the starting gate this upcoming Wednesday at Hawthorne.

Greetings one and all! It’s been a while since my last blog (think all the way back to the Hawthorne Gold Cup) and I really need to play catch up. So here we go… what’s been happening at Hawthorne, in Chicago, or with me over the last six weeks or so? I think I’ll go in chronological order here.