Mike Watchmaker

A lot happened on Saturday. Let’s first touch on the Kentucky Derby preps:

The urge to dismiss Saturday’s Spiral Stakes as any sort of meaningful prep for the Kentucky Derby this year is strong. After all, upset winner Black Onyx’s previous biggest claim to fame was an entry level allowance win on the turf at Gulfstream in his prior start. Hey, unlike 369 of his contemporaries, Black Onyx wasn’t even a Triple Crown nominee before the Spiral, and his final time was slow enough to result in an uninspiring winning Beyer Figure of only 90.

For the most part, I like the new points system instituted by Churchill Downs that will be used to determine the starting field in the Kentucky Derby should more than 20 horses enter. I like that this system emphasizes current form over past accomplishment by assigning higher point values to final-round Derby preps. I also like how this system puts second-tier preps with slots-fueled purses, such as Sunday’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby, into better perspective.

Oxbow ran well in narrow defeat in the Rebel. He was close to a lively pace, and the early pace player who was closest to Oxbow at the end, 6-5 favorite Super Ninety Nine, finished a large 8 1-4 lengths behind him in fifth. Den’s Legacy also ran well finishing third in the Rebel, beaten two lengths for it all. Den’s Legacy was on the rail every step of the way, but the rail is often not the place to be at Oaklawn, and that appeared to be the case again Saturday.

I know that Verrazano’s win in the Tampa Bay Derby and the upset of Flashback in the San Felipe were important happenings on Saturday. But for me, the biggest “Wow” moment of the day was when Fort Larned dumped jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. one stride out of the gate in the Gulfstream Park Handicap.