Kentucky Oaks: Pedigree profiles
A closer look at the pedigrees of the entrants in Friday's 141st running of the $1 million Kentucky Oaks, in post position order.
DRF Breeding StaffApr 28, 2015
A closer look at the pedigrees of the entrants in Friday's 141st running of the $1 million Kentucky Oaks, in post position order.
The Kentucky Derby is contested at a mile and a quarter, but many of this year’s contenders had to first prove their mettle across a single furlong. Part of the auction process during that section of the Thoroughbred sale calendar is the under-tack show, or breeze show, in which the juveniles turn in a public workout for potential buyers to analyze. Many factors are taken into consideration when assessing a horse’s performance at a breeze show, including movement, length of stride, breathing, and the gallop-out after crossing the finish line. The most basic factor measured, however, is time.
Even after all these years, the sight of trainer Larry Jones galloping a horse arrests the eye.
California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, will miss an expected start in the $535,500 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England in May and be trained for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, trainer Art Sherman said on Tuesday.
With the majority of the Kentucky Derby starters finally on the grounds, Tuesday was a busy morning during an Oaks/Derby session dominated by gallopers, many of whom were stretching their legs for the first time over the Churchill Downs main track.
While this year’s crop of the 3-year-olds have been lauded as one of the best in many years, it has some performing to do to measure up to some of the classes of the past.
As a poker player, Kiaran McLaughlin appreciates the feeling of having a strong hand. After nearly losing with his entire stack of Kentucky Derby contenders, McLaughlin went “all in” with Frosted for the April 4 Wood Memorial, a race he won by two lengths. Now, on Saturday at Churchill Downs, McLaughlin will participate in the World Series of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby.
Marcia Stortz is still enjoying the afterglow of her first training victory with Blazing Mojave on April 19. Blazing Mojave was only the second runner she had started. He held off All Magic by a head in a six-furlong, $12,500 maiden claimer.
Tom Doutrich, the racing secretary for the California Authority of Racing Fairs, has released the first condition book for the 12-day Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet that will be held June 18 through July 5. The meet will include six Thoroughbred stakes and more than $1.7 million in purses and bonuses for trainers.
His two best 3-year-olds have combined to win all their races save one, and both come off victories in important final preps for the Kentucky Derby. Yes, that outline obviously applies to American Pharoah and Dortmund, the Bob Baffert-trained duo that has dominated the talk of this year’s Derby. But it also applies to trainer Todd Pletcher’s best prospects, Carpe Diem and Materiality.