Flower Alley to Ark. Derby

Flower Alley, the upset winner of the Lane's End Stakes at Turfway Park, will make his next start in the $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn on April 16, trainer Todd Pletcher said Thursday.

Pletcher had considered both the Blue Grass and Arkansas Derby for Flower Alley, but chose the Arkansas Derby for several reasons, including the fact he plans on running Bandini in the Blue Grass.

"It's a little bit of that," Pletcher said from south Florida. "It's splitting hairs, but maybe it's slightly easier in Arkansas."

Pletcher said that Monarch Lane, third behind Sun King and Survivalist in a Feb. 26 entry-level allowance race at Gulfstream, would run in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne on April 9.