Stronghold won the Santa Anita Derby, E J Won the Cup the Texas Derby, but while Dragoon Guard has landed no derbies and never faced stakes competition, he could wind up favored Saturday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby. Brad Cox trains Dragoon Guard for his breeder, Juddmonte Farms, and Cox has won the Indiana Derby twice in the last four years, including the 2023 renewal with Verifying. Dragoon Guard lost his lone start at age 2 but returned at 3 with eye-catching maiden and first-level allowance wins, the latter at a one-turn mile, as far as Dragoon Guard has run. “I thought he was okay last year, but he’s a much better horse this year,” said Cox, whose entrants tend to be heavily overbet in Midwest stakes races. “Based on his physical and pedigree, he should be better at two turns.” The 1 1/16-mile Indiana Derby, the annual highlight of the long Horseshoe Indianapolis meeting, goes as the last of 12 races, post time 6:41 p.m. Eastern. The weather forecast calls for a clear, temperate afternoon. The derby drew eight entrants, but no more than seven run with Sir Greylind an expected scratch. Kitty Hawk, cross-entered in the Iowa Derby, runs at Horseshoe. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Dragoon Guard is by the late Arrogate and out of the Mizzen Mast mare Filimbi, a turf miler. The robust gray colt possesses speed and put it to good use comfortably winning June 2 over a sloppy track while beating, Cox acknowledged, rivals of limited capability. “He’s got speed but he’s not over-the-top aggressive,” Cox said. “Hopefully, he’ll break and be pretty close.” Florent Geroux and Dragoon Guard leave from the outside post – and Geroux immediately leaves after the race to ride Just a Touch and Hit Show for Cox in races at Prairie Meadows on Saturday night. Cox, by his standards, has hit a cold spell, two winners from his last 24 starters through Wednesday. And beginning with Idiomatic’s June 8 defeat in the Ogden Phipps, Cox has lost four straight stakes with odds-on favorites. Dragoon Guard can win but likely offers negative value in what looks like a three-horse race. The Santa Anita Derby came up light this year, Stronghold gamely getting up to win over the Bob Baffert-trained favorite Imagination, who subsequently clunked home seventh in the Preakness and the Woody Stephens. Stronghold garnered some Kentucky Derby support, and while he finished best, seventh, among horses racing in the vanguard around the first turn, he lost by nearly 13 lengths with a modest 82 Beyer Speed Figure. “He was right there at the top of the lane. I thought for a second we were going to win the darn thing,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “It was a little too far for him. We learned what our distance limitations were there. He’s shortening up to a distance more to his liking.” Stronghold drew inside pace players Dragoon Guard and Kitty Hawk, leaving jockey Antonio Fresu to work out a trip. “He’s very tactical, a versatile horse who doesn’t need to be on the lead,” D’Amato said. E J Won the Cup finished third, beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Stronghold, in the Santa Anita Derby, but comes to Indiana a potentially improved horse. E J Won the Cup, by Omaha Beach, sprinted his first six starts, won a pair of dirt routes racing on the lead, stalked and might have failed to stay 1 1/8 miles in the Santa Anita Derby, and ran the race of his life May 27 winning the Texas Derby by one length. Stuck on the rail going around the race’s second turn, E J Won the Cup got shuffled back to sixth, losing momentum, but neither he nor jockey Mike Smith turned a hair, and when the colt found room along the fence he quickly closed ground, clipping past the leaders after Smith switched outside in upper stretch. “Mike Smith has really helped us,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “He’s probably worked this horse eight times. He’s helped him to mature mentally, for sure. His last race is proof of that.” :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  Real Men Violin lost the Texas Derby by seven lengths, Informed Patriot by more than 16. The latter has bounce-back potential but even at his best would struggle to win. Woodcourt never has been fast enough, with Kitty Hawk no more than a pace factor. It’ll come down to the two derby winners and the Cox colt trying for his first derby. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.