LEXINGTON, Ky. – Larry Demeritte watched the Kentucky Derby while growing up in the Bahamas, following in the footsteps of his father to become a Thoroughbred trainer there. And so he relocated to Kentucky some four decades-plus ago, for proximity to chase that dream. Demeritte, wearing a tie in the colors of the Bahamian flag to saddle West Saratoga, had a reason to dream when the colt upset the Grade 3 Iroquois last month beneath the twin spires of Churchill Downs – the first race awarding points toward the 2024 Kentucky Derby. West Saratoga and Demeritte look to take another points race in the Grade 1, $600,000 Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday at Keeneland. The race also awards a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but Demeritte is more focused on the long game. “You have to be around good horses to have something to compare them to,” Demeritte said at Keeneland recently. “The Breeders’ Futurity is a good test for him because a lot of these horses are going to wind up in the Kentucky Derby.” The Futurity, like the Iroquois, awards the top finishers points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale toward the Derby starting gate. Demeritte has a nine-horse stable based at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, about 20 minutes from Keeneland, which he considers his home track. West Saratoga has two of the four wins from 26 starts this year for the trainer, and the colt gave him his first stakes win since Memorial Maniac won the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes in 2010 at Arlington. Demeritte purchased West Saratoga, by Exaggerator, for just $11,000 on behalf of longtime client Harry Veruchi on the final day of the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale. “My motto is, I buy a good horse cheap, I don’t buy cheap horses,” Demeritte said. :: Bet Keeneland with confidence! Get DRF PPs, Picks and more. Part of what convinced the trainer that the young gray fit that category was his attitude in the busy sale atmosphere. “He was really smart around the sale ring, real attentive,” Demeritte said. “You look for that in a quality horse, because a lot of times, you get a horse that has ability, but they’re nervous or something, and that’s not gonna transfer to making a good racehorse.” Demeritte and Veruchi saw the importance of demeanor in Daring Pegasus, who won the 2000 Turfway Prevue but “didn’t have the attitude to go forward” to major prep races, Demeritte said. Early on, Veruchi asked how West Saratoga compared to Daring Pegasus. “He said, ‘This horse is twice as good, and he can go long,’” Veruchi recalled after the Iroquois win. “That excited me, because you can’t really run in races like this if you’re a sprinter.” After getting a tough rail draw several times in sprints to start his career, West Saratoga relished the mile to win his maiden in his fifth start. He led throughout for that score, at a 1 1/2-turn configuration in August at Ellis Park. The one-mile Iroquois was run out of the chute around a single turn at Churchill, and West Saratoga showed a different dimension, racing in fourth about six lengths behind an ambitious front-runner before coming on for his 1 3/4-length win. West Saratoga, with Gerardo Corrales aboard in post 5, has speed both inside and outside of him in the 1 1/16-mile Futurity. Just Steel should join several maiden winners on that engine. A Saratoga maiden winner over the well-regarded Locked, who he faces again Saturday, Just Steel led early before finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Hopeful, which fell apart late. Locked is one of the most high-profile juveniles emerging from the Saratoga meet. After recovering to finish third after a poor break in his six-furlong debut, he came back to win as he pleased by 7 1/4 lengths going a mile Sept. 1. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96. “I think that was the fastest mile of the meet,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He came back good and has had two really good breezes.” The Wine Steward won the Bashford Manor at Ellis, then narrowly bested El Grande O, who flattered with a subsequent stakes win in the Funny Cide for New York-breds. The Wine Steward, by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso, stretches out for the first time. Timberlake, second in the Hopeful, is expected to scratch to run in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes on Saturday in New York. – additional reporting by Marcus Hersh and David Grening :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.