New York’s reconstructed winter road to the Kentucky Derby has been smooth sailing for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin and Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing. Five weeks after winning the Grade 3 Withers with Avery Island, the trainer-owner tandem struck again Saturday with Enticed, who won the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct.
Tampa Bay Derby upset winner Quip emerged from his 19-1 victory in good shape Sunday, less than 24 hours after giving Rodolphe Brisset easily the biggest victory of a training career that is less than a year in the making.
There is so much to say about Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita that it’s difficult to know where to begin. So, let’s begin at the end, with the controversial decision by the stewards to disqualify McKinzie and award the win to Bolt d’Oro.
McKinzie and Bolt d’Oro delivered on the hype Saturday at Santa Anita, where they produced one of the most thrilling Derby preps of 2018.
Enticed erased the memories of a disappointing 3-year-old debut and likely earned his way back to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby with a solid 2 3/4-length victory over longshot Old Time Revival in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
An outsider named Quip ran himself right into the Kentucky Derby picture Saturday when getting a perfect trip under Florent Geroux in a 19-1 upset of the Grade 2, $355,000 Tampa Bay Derby, the annual signature event at Tampa Bay Downs.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn made a winning return to the races Friday night at Dundalk Racecourse in Ireland, capturing the listed Patton Stakes over his stablemate Threeandfourpence by about three-quarters of a length in his 3-year-old debut.
Justify can support the hype surrounding his brilliant debut if he wins his first start around two turns Sunday at Santa Anita. A win in the allowance race with a $75,000 claiming option at a mile would vault Justify into the spring preps for the Kentucky Derby.
Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe at Santa Anita is perhaps the most hotly anticipated of all the Derby preps contested so far this season. It’s the first time that we will get to see two of the early favorites for the first Saturday in May square off in the same race. Last year’s two-time Grade 1-winning two-year-old star Bolt d’Oro takes on the undefeated McKinzie, as well as 6 other rivals.
The Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby will be contested for the 38th time on Saturday, offering 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner. The field is led by Flameaway, winner of the Sam F. Davis, but this race came up much tougher than that local prep. Tiz Mischief and Untamed Domain ship in from the Gulfstream Park area, and the blazingly fast World of Trouble attempts to stretch out in distance for the first time.
