Silva: 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 NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
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.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
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.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
AFP - Getty Images fileThere’s no doubt that the John Shirreffs-trained Giacomo was one of the main beneficiaries of the torrid pace. He was relaxed in 18th place early while the front runners were running themselves ragged, then came bobbing and weaving through the stretch under a great ride by Mike Smith to nail Closing Argument and Afleet Alex in the final strides.
But while the effects of the fast pace on the speed brigade were evident to all, the ways in which it forced the closers to adapt are not as easy to apprehend or to measure.
In Giacomo’s case, the colt was much farther back in the Derby than typical and had to make an extended run around the turn and through the stretch to catch the leaders. According to the Daily Racing Form chart, he gained nearly 10 lengths on the leaders in the middle stages of the race, closing into what was still a very testing pace. Using the rough yardstick that every length is equal to about one-fifth of a second, that means Giacomo ran the middle quarter mile of the Derby in just a shade over 24 seconds, a solid time for any quarter mile in a route race.
No rest for the weary
But he couldn’t rest on his accomplishment. Even as he began tiring, he had to sustain that run and pick off the even-more-exhausted runners still in front of him.
In addition to the early burst, Giacomo had a wide trip that undoubtedly cost him a couple lengths and was subjected to the sort of bumping that virtually every competitor encounters in the moving melee that is the Kentucky Derby.
None of these factors is reflected in the Beyer Speed Figure (though some rival methodologies attempt to compensate for lost ground and even factors like wind speed), which may explain why some races that appear weak on paper aren’t what they seem.
There’s no need to dig into ancient history to find a good example of this.
The Santa Anita Derby, historically one of the most prestigious prep races for the Kentucky Derby, was a lowly rated affair this year. Winner Buzzards Bay earned a measly 98 Beyer figure for winning the April 9 race, far lower than the 120 given to Bellamy Road for winning the Wood Memorial and below the 108 assigned to Afleet Alex for his victory in the Arkansas Derby, the 103 Bandini received for capturing the Blue Grass Stakes, High Limit’s 102 in the Florida Derby and even the 99 earned by Coin Silver in the Lexington Stakes.
But when the dust had settled after the Kentucky Derby, four of the top six finishers were horses that came out of the Santa Anita Derby, including Giacomo.
The bottom line is that while speed figures are useful tools for evaluating horses, they’re not the final word, especially when it comes to predicting future performance. And while Giacomo and the other Derby horses may indeed turn out to be nothing special, it’s not inconceivable that one of them could turn in a monster performance that will have people singing a very different tune.
One person who needs no convincing is Tim Ritchey, who trains likely Preakness favorite Afleet Alex.
“He made a big run, and was stronger than everybody else at the end,” he said last week in describing Giacomo’s Derby victory. “So you have to give him a lot of credit.”
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.
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.
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Silva: 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 NFC teams.