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For Gun Runner and Mo Tom, the Louisiana Derby on Saturday played out like the Risen Star last month. For Gun Runner, it was a joyous sequel. For Mo Tom, another Nightmare on Gentilly Blvd.
Lani became the first Japanese horse to win the Group 2, $2 million UAE Derby and for his next trick will try to become the first Japanese horse to win the Kentucky Derby.
DRF handicapper Kenny Peck outlines his strategy for a pick four play on Saturday's program at Fair Grounds.
One course of action in Saturday's Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds is to side with a horse who was compromised by the bias in the Risen Star, and that's what I'm doing. Tom's Ready, who finished seventh, is one such horse. But I'm going back – again – to Uncle Walter.
Girl power could hold sway in the $1 million UAE Derby, where the 3-year-old filly Polar River will be heavily favored, and the main chance at an upset comes from another filly, the Argentine-bred Vale Dori.
Mo Tom and Tom's Ready, both of whom compete for Gayle Benson's GMB Racing, could earn their way to the May 7 Kentucky Derby on Saturday when they compete in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, the richest and most-significant of the – gulp – 15 races to be contested on the penultimate day of the season here at Fair Grounds.
Gun Runner became the latest horse to highlight the success of Edward P. Evans's breeding program when he won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. As the colt moves forward to the Louisiana Derby and Kentucky Derby, he is well-equipped with stamina on both sides of his pedigree.
Collected won the richest and longest race of his young career last Sunday in the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes and the 3-year-old has a host of options going forward, according to his trainer, Bob Baffert.
All meet jockey Florent Geroux has been making well-timed moves and getting on the best horses, and he'll look to win the biggest of them all this meet on Saturday when he rides Gun Runner in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.
The Derby Watch top 20 remained intact from last week, but the odds on several runners changed, most notably Cupid, whose impressive victory in the Rebel caused Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form's national handicapper, to lower his odds to 12-1 from last week's 30-1, making him the co-fourth choice on Watchmaker's line for the May 7 Kentucky Derby.
