Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Poor Da' Tara. He had just won the biggest race of his career, the Belmont Stakes, but he was merely an afterthought, because all anyone wanted to talk about was not who won, but who lost.
As Da' Tara posed for pictures in the Belmont winner's circle on June 7, the media posse left him to chase after Big Brown and his sweat-soaked trainer, Rick Dutrow. It was an understandable reaction, being as Big Brown was going for the Triple Crown, and all Da' Tara had done, up to that point, was win a maiden race.
But when Da' Tara runs on Sunday in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, it is he who will be the focal point, what with Big Brown tucked away at Aqueduct, awaiting the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth a week later.
The 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy will be a critical race for Da' Tara. It will be an opportunity for him to prove that the Belmont was not a fluke, that he merely capitalized when Big Brown chucked it a mile into the 1 1/2-mile race. More significantly, the Jim Dandy could help propel Da' Tara into the mix for champion 3-year-old colt. The Jim Dandy is a prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 23. If Da' Tara sweeps the summer at Saratoga, he would have a heck of a hat trick heading into the fall.
Da' Tara was the second Belmont Stakes winner in four years for trainer Nick Zito, who also stopped the Triple Crown bid of Smarty Jones with Birdstone in 2004. Birdstone came back and won the 1 1/4-mile Travers on a dark and stormy afternoon later that summer, but did not tune up in the Jim Dandy. Da' Tara, with more substance than Birdstone, needs to stay active.
"The Travers is a mile and a quarter," Zito said. "Da' Tara needs to be sharp for the Travers. I want him to win the Jim Dandy, but it's more important that he run a good race. Then the mile and a quarter will be right up his alley."
Da' Tara was slow to come around. Although he was a maiden winner in his third lifetime start, at Gulfstream Park in January, he subsequently was third in a weak first-level allowance race, then finished ninth of 12, some 23 1/2 lengths behind Big Brown, in the Florida Derby.
"When he ran against Big Brown the first time, he certainly was not up to that," Zito said. "But we were running out of options to see if he could make the Derby. I wanted to see if he could compete. He wasn't ready."
That day, though, jockey Joe Bravo told Zito he thought Da' Tara would be fine, but that he needed time to develop. Zito received similar feedback from Larry Melancon after Da' Tara finished fifth in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs, and from John Velazquez after Da' Tara finished second in the Barbaro Stakes on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico.
That dovetailed with Zito's assessment. A student of pedigrees, Zito believed that Da' Tara, a son of Tiznow, would only get better with age and experience.
"He's a two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner," Zito said of Tiznow. "I ran Da' Tara in the Belmont because I knew the distance would not be a problem."
The first of three pools of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager begins its three-day run on Friday and the bet's opening scenario is very similar to each of its opening pools since the wager was created in 1999.
It's first time that Classic will be broadcast in primetime on Nov. 3.
DAILY RACING FORM |
 |
 | INTERACTIVE |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Derby celebs Plenty of stars from the entertainment and sports world attend the 136th Kentucky Derby. more photos |
| INTERACTIVE |
 | Triple Crown winners The horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in the same year. |
 | Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.