Triple Crown Favorites Ready For 2011 Horse Racing Season

by Bodog Racebook | Apr 26 2011

Less than a month remains before the table is set for the 2011 Kentucky Derby in Churchill Downs, the first of three fabled horse races that make up the elusive Triple Crown. Will this be the year that a Thoroughbred vies for the honor for the first time since Affirmed did it in 1978? Bet on horse racing now and into the summer with Bodog.

As always, the first leg of the Triple Crown will take place at the tradition-rich 1 1/4-mile track, Churchill Downs, in Louisville, KY, pitting the sport’s best against each other in what has come to be known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports”.

Will early Triple Crown favorite Dialed In have enough in him to follow through on lofty pre-race expectations? According to Bodog’s Online Sportsbook, Dialed In has 4/1 odds of winning the Kentucky Derby when it runs on May 7.

Although we saw Big Brown come close in 2008, he was the only horse to win more than one of the Triple Crown events in the past five years. In the two years before and since, each leg has been won by a one-time winner, including last year’s three events by trio Super Saver, Lookin at Lucky and Drosselmeyer.

Shortly after the conclusion of the Kentucky Derby, attention will shift to Baltimore, MD for the Preakness Stakes, the second and shortest leg of the Triple Crown. Horse racing will reach another fervid peak when the event takes place May 21 at Pimlico Race Course.

Although 16/1 odds say that Dialed In breaks the 32-year Triple Crown drought, he’s not the only candidate to potentially put together a 2011 to remember. He’ll face tough competition from both Archarcharch and Nehro.

Archarcharch has been given 10/1 odds of winning the Kentucky Derby and 40/1 odds to win the Triple Crown, compared to those of Nehro at 6/1 and 40/1 respectively. They, along with Dialed In, will be tasked with fending off contenders like Mucho Macho Man, Soldat and the rest of a competitive field.

Have an idea of how it will all unfold? Why not bet on horse racing if this is the year you feel history will repeat?

The third and final leg of the Triple Crown is scheduled for June 11 in Elmont, NY, as the Belmont Stakes―the longest dirt track in Thoroughbred racing―closes out the classic series. Only time will tell whether it will serve as the backdrop of history.

While Big Brown has been the only one to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown since 2004, the feat has been accomplished six times between 1997 and 2004, a testament to how possible―yet seemingly attainable―it really is.

There is a reason fans of horse racing swarm to the tradition of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, and it has every bit to do with the tradition of the Triple Crown and the venues that host it as it has to do with the horse betting.

Get all your horse racing odds and Triple Crown betting with Bodog.