For this crop of Kentucky Derby contenders, Gary and Mary West might have had one that got away, but they’ve got a darn good one themselves. The Wests watched their familiar black and pink silks flash home first Saturday at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel Stakes with the colt Concert Tour, who remained unbeaten in three starts and earned 50 points, sufficient to make the field for the Kentucky Derby on May 1. A Bob Baffert-trained colt who is 3 for 3 and won a race worth 50 points to the winner? Why, that’s the storyline from a week ago, when Life Is Good romped in the San Felipe at Santa Anita. There’s more similarity. Both Concert Tour and Life Is Good were bred by the Wests. They sold Life Is Good, a son of Into Mischief, as a yearling in September 2019 for $525,000, and kept Concert Tour, who is by Derby winner Street Sense. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. Seven weeks out from Derby Day, they are on course for a showdown against the others who emerge as Derby starters in coming weeks. On Saturday, Concert Tour ($5.40) – the second choice in the field of eight - easily passed his first try around two turns while making his first start outside California, and he did it by taking the track early from 6-5 favorite Caddo River and cracking his rival’s will on the far turn. Concert Tour, under Joel Rosario, drew clear through the lane and was under wraps late for an authoritative 4 1/4-length victory. Baffert’s other entrant, the 18-1 shot Hozier, rallied along the inside for second, three-quarters of a length in front of third-place Big Lake, with Super Stock fourth as Caddo River, who got the staggers the final furlong, faded to fifth while bothering Big Lake in the process. Keepmeinmind, Get Her Number, and Twilight Blue completed the order of finish. Concert Tour covered 1 1/16 miles on the fast main track in 1:43.18. Earlier in the card, Shedaresthedevil, last year’s Kentucky Oaks winner, was timed in 1:42.57 -- .61 faster -- for the same distance in winning her 2021 debut in the Azeri for older females. To this point, Concert Tour’s career has been a carbon copy of that of Nadal last year. Both won their debuts sprinting in January and then three weeks later won the San Vicente at Santa Anita before going to Oaklawn for the Rebel. Last year’s campaign for Nadal was interrupted at that point by the pandemic, which forced postponement of the Arkansas Derby until May 2, and the Kentucky Derby until September. Nadal won a division of that postponed Arkansas Derby, but never made the Kentucky Derby, having suffered a career-ending injury in a subsequent workout. Concert Tour became the record eighth Rebel winner for Baffert, all since 2010. Concert Tour started from post 7, and broke like a shot. Caddo River also has speed – he was coming off a front-running victory in the one-mile Smarty Jones – but he couldn’t keep up with his faster rival in the opening furlong after starting from the rail, and rather than force his way inside, Florent Geroux made the appropriate decision at the time to get outside Concert Tour into what should be an ideal stalking position. But Caddo River was quite keen in that spot, and Concert Tour was always going the easier of the two down the backside, through a half-mile in 47.53 seconds. Concert Tour disposed of Caddo River and no one else ever got close as he breezed home the final furlong. Rosario has been aboard him for all three starts. “The plan was to get a good break. I thought the inside horse would go to the lead,” Rosario said in an interview on TVG, “but my horse broke really sharp, and Flo decided to take back. I was right on top of him.” He dominated from start to finish.