Cezanne enters the Derby Watch top 20 as the fourth choice on the line of Daily Racing Form's Marty McGee. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 when beating maidens at Santa Anita last Saturday, the day the Belmont Stakes was originally scheduled.
The pricey Cezanne, who won his highly anticipated career debut last weekend at Santa Anita, sports the definition of a classic pedigree.
Maxfield, one of the top contenders for the 146th Kentucky Derby, has been declared out of the Sept. 5 race after exiting a Wednesday breeze at Keeneland with a condylar fracture of his right front cannon bone.
Future plans for Kentucky Derby hopefuls Sole Volante, Ete Indien, and Shivaree should come into sharper focus after the trio of highly regarded 3-year-olds square off at a mile in Wednesday's $55,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.
The top two finishers from the Santa Anita Derby – Honor A. P. and Authentic – both came out of the race in good order, and both remain on the trail to the Kentucky Derby, but how both get there is uncertain owing to the new path all 3-year-olds must navigate toward the delayed Sept. 5 Derby this year.
Honor A.P. has all the tools – top trainer, Hall of Fame jockey, pedigree, looks – to be a major contender three months hence in the Derby, and he only figures to improve in that time.
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Time – and distance – were on the side of Honor A. P. on Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby in his rivalry with Authentic.
Charlatan, who has crossed the finish line first in all three of his starts including a division of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, will not make the Belmont Stakes on June 20 or the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 due to an ankle injury, trainer Bob Baffert said Saturday.
Three of the top 16 point earners for this year's Kentucky Derby will be squaring off against one another on Wednesday, not in a graded stakes at Belmont Park or Churchill Downs, but for a mere $55,000 purse going one mile under allowance conditions at Gulfstream Park.
Led by Tampa Bay Derby winner King Guillermo, such highly regarded runners as Pneumatic and Shooters Shoot, as well as the filly Swiss Skydiver and the high-priced auction buy Cezanne, a total of 22 3-year-olds were made eligible to the Triple Crown at the second deadline, which closed Wednesday after being postponed from March.
