Trainer Keith Desormeaux sent My Boy Jack to Oaklawn for the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes in part to get a line on how the horse, a stakes winner on turf, might handle dirt. He got an emphatic answer when My Boy Jack roared to 4 ½-length win over Combatant.
Kentucky Derby: Risen Star analysis
Nonkono Yume earned a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November, and Sumahama earned a place in the Kentucky Derby on May 5 with their stakes wins at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan on Sunday.
It’s important to remember that the road to the Kentucky Derby is not linear. We are not going to have a Derby prep season that sequentially builds on what previously transpired in terms of quality and strength. Sure, it would be nice if things were all nice and neat like that, but it doesn’t work that way.
From older horses in the Grade 1 February Stakes to 3-year-olds in the Hyacinth Stakes, Sunday’s program at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan could have ramifications for the biggest races in the United States this year.
Gold Town remained unbeaten on dirt and undefeated in Dubai with an easy win in Thursday’s Group 3 United Arab Emirates 2000 Guineas at Meydan Racecourse.
How far they'll travel along the Triple Crown trail is open to question, but several of the 3-year-olds in Saturday's $100,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields look like serious candidates for this spring's Kentucky Derby preps.
He has two entered in the Risen Star Stakes this Saturday at Fair Grounds and likely will have three in the Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park. And there are several more who could make late impacts on the Kentucky Derby trail. These are heady days for Steve Asmussen, who has as much depth as any trainer with this year's crop of 3-year-olds as he tries to tick off the one box still left open on his résumé.
Derby Watch member Principe Guilherme's pedigree balances both sides of the coin. Principe Guilherme, who wound up back in the hands of his breeder after running through the auction ring, is by a prominent stallion who has been represented by three winners of the Belmont Stakes – America's longest classic race – in the last four years. He's also the first foal out of a mare who was best around one turn.
Kanthaka, who won the San Vicente Stakes, and Flameaway, the winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes, are the two newcomers to this week's Derby Watch top 20.
