Northfield: Wednesday 4/29 Analysis + Pick Four ticket
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Wednesday 4/29 card at Northfield Park.
Jeremey DayApr 27, 2015
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Wednesday 4/29 card at Northfield Park.
General Ann will be facing winners for the first time, but she still looks like the one to beat in a $50,000 optional starter claiming race for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream on Wednesday. The 7 1/2-furlong race on turf goes as the fifth race and drew 10 horses for the body of the race. Mochima will get to run if the race gets moved to the main track.
Rosemary Homeister Jr. became part of Kentucky Derby lore 12 years ago when she became just the fifth woman to ride in the race, and now she’s poised to make more Churchill Downs history.
Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas has saddled 47 Kentucky Derby starters, winning four editions of the classic along the way. He has just one shot at his fifth Derby victory on Saturday, sending out longshot Mr. Z. However, don’t think the Lukas influence isn’t all over this Derby.
In the Kentucky Derby, one rule approaches the status of founding principal: To win, a horse must have started as a 2-year-old. Materiality is the latest horse to try and break that rule.
Some have compared both of Bob Baffert’s Kentucky Derby hopefuls, American Pharoah and Dortmund, to Seattle Slew, who won the Triple Crown in 1977, 38 years ago.
The first sightings of the recently arrived California contingent – DORTMUND, FIRING LINE, and BOLO – were among the highlights of Monday’s Kentucky Derby-Oaks training session, which also featured a five-furlong work by BOLD CONQUEST, who still needs help to crack the Derby’s starting lineup.
As if Saturday’s championship fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao needs any more publicity, along comes the aptly named Itsaknockout, who’ll provide fans one last reminder of the bout four hours before the fight starts as one of the 20 starters in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Though his form suggests he will be overmatched in what looks to be one of the toughest fields in years, Keen Ice gives trainer Dale Romans a good feeling heading into Saturday’s 141st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Effinex, the three-quarter-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Excelsior Stakes, could make his next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational at Belmont Park on June 6 or the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster on June 13 at Churchill Downs