Wunderdog Sports Picks Blog

by Carlo Campanella

The legends made it look so easy back in the 1970’s. Secretariat started it by sweeping the 1973 Triple Crown with amazing ease. It doesn’t matter if you’re an avid horse player or experienced making horse racing picks, every sports fan can recall the image of “Big Red” romping down Belmont’s stretch to win the final leg of the Triple Crown by 31-lengths. Just four short years later in 1977, another legend, Seattle Slew claimed the crown. While race fans were still debating which of those two Champions was the better thoroughbred, Affirmed turned back Alydar in three consecutive battles in 1978. Those legends treated us to three Triple Crown winners during a six-year span, including back-to-back winners!

Fast forward to 2008. It’s been 30 years since Affirmed won the Triple Crown, but many have come close…very close. In fact, since 1997 six 3-year-olds have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, only to fail as favorites in the Belmont Stakes. Even though we’ve had to wait three decades for our next champ, it’s been worth the wait, as it’s a settling feeling that we don’t have to mention the names of Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide and Smarty Jones in the same breath as Secretariat and Slew. After failing to win the Belmont Stakes, none of these six experienced racing success expected of a Triple Crown Champion, or made much of an impact in the breeding shed.

There are no more prep races, only morning works- and dreams- as we wait to see if a new star emerges from this crop of 3-year-olds as the horses “jockey” for early position and horse players begin to formulate their Kentucky Derby Picks.

And Then There Were Six…

From Davidson’s improbable run deep into the tournament to Mario “Superintendent” Chalmers’ buzzer beater to help the Kansas Jayhawks to the National Championship, this year’s March Madness tournament was about as action packed as anyone could have hoped.

Today we highlight some of the off-court fireworks with our list of winners of the inaugural Wunderdog Sports “Lucky 7” March Madness Bracket Contest.

This year, the man with all the right March Madness picks was Rodney, AKA CashMoney. At the end of the tournament, CashMoney was flush with $300 Bodog cash dropped into his account. In addition to the Bodog winnings, Rodney also won a month’s worth of Wunderdog’s premium sports picks.

Our third- place finisher Harry, AKA indyjones9755 said “The contest was very well run, gave you almost immediate results from the games, and definitely affordable (no entry fee!). Wunderdog and Bodog once again were a great team in sponsoring this contest.”

Indyjones9755 also picked up $50 Bodog cash plus a week of premium Wunderdog sports picks.

In addition to the prize money put up by Bodog, they sportsbook giant also contributed a ton of “swag” to help sweeten the prize packages for our winners.

As our sixth-place finisher John, who goes by the handle capperslounge, so eloquently put it “the shirt will be worn proudly.” John also won a one-day subscription to Wunderdog Sports.

Congratulations to all our winners and let the bragging begin!

Wunderdog “Lucky 7″ March Madness Contest Winners!

By Carlo Campanella 

The Kentucky Derby will be run on Saturday, May 3 and with only four weeks left it’s time to make the final cuts and start thinking about Kentucky Derby picks for the first leg of the Triple Crown. Even with powerful closing moves from Pyro, an undefeated Big Brown, and five huge wire-to-wire winning efforts from War Pass, it looks like we’re set for a full field of 20 going to post at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May – making Kentucky Derby handicapping this year quite a task!

The Prime Suspects

1) Pyro packs the best losing kick of the group and owns the most consistent form of any 3-year-old in this crop.  Never finishing worse than third during his six lifetime starts, he is coming off back-to-back victories in the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby.  This colt is a son of Pulpit, who was sired by A.P. Indy, the former Belmont Stakes winner and one of today’s top sires.  If you’re looking to knock this favorite, it could only be that his late closing run might get him into traffic trouble when facing 20 other runners on Derby day.

The Kentucky Derby: Who Dun It