Tyler Gaffalione was smiling as he and War of Will walked back to the barn. If horses could smile, War of Will might have matched his rider. "He had running on his mind today," Gaffalione said after Kentucky Derby candidate War of Will worked a sharp five furlongs from the gate in 59 seconds flat on Saturday morning at Keeneland. "He came back happy. He's real proud of himself."
The major Kentucky Derby prep race on Saturday is the Arkansas Derby, but Keeneland’s Grade 3 Lexington could also produce a starter or two for the big race this year.
Todd Pletcher spent the early morning hours Friday sending out more than two dozen horses to work at his winter-spring headquarters at Palm Beach Downs, a group that included potential Kentucky Derby starters Cutting Humor and Spinoff.
The road to the Kentucky Derby wraps up Saturday with the final race that awards qualifying points, the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. While last week’s prep races provided some much-needed clarity to the 3-year-old landscape, the Derby dreams of a few top runners still hinge on this final steppingstone. Chief among those are the two favorites in this race, Improbable and Omaha Beach, who exit separate divisions of the Rebel Stakes.
The Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on Saturday has brought together 11 hopefuls for the Kentucky Derby, including the winners of both divisions of last month's Rebel – Omaha Beach and Long Range Toddy – a Bob Baffert shipper in Improbable, and popular multiple stakes winners Galilean and Gray Attempt.
Bye Bye Hong Kong won the $77,000 Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions Stakes on Thursday at Chelmsford in the final leg of the European Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Now comes the final twist on the Kentucky Derby trail for Anothertwistafate, whose journey to Louisville has been anything but a straight line. The colt whose emerging talent and side-door route have placed him on the threshold of cracking the Derby field will try to clinch his spot when facing nine other 3-year-olds Saturday in the Stonestreet Lexington Stakes before a packed house at Keeneland.
Blue Grass Stakes winner Vekoma returned Tuesday to his winter base, the Palm Beach Downs training center in Florida, where the speedy chestnut will do the bulk of his training toward the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
Improbable drew the rail for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, which will have a field of 11 for Saturday.
Anothertwistafate drew post 4 in a field of 10 3-year-olds for the Lexington Stakes, a Kentucky Derby points race on Saturday that most likely will determine whether the colt makes the 20-horse cutoff for the May 4 Derby.
