Last year’s Los Alamitos Futurity turned out to be a key race, with Dortmund, Firing Line, and Mr. Z taking the first three spots. This year’s running did not look as promising on paper in terms of depth, but the victorious Mor Spirit certainly has the right credentials to develop into a top prospect.
Mor Spirit on Saturday stamped himself as a potential serious contender for the 2016 Kentucky Derby by running down stablemate Toews On Ice to win the Grade 1, $350,000 Los Alamitos Futurity, a race trainer Bob Baffert also won last year with Dortmund.
A full 8 1/2 months before the Kentucky Derby, the road to the Derby commenced with the Iroquois, run at the home of the Derby.
Greenpointcrusader stamped himself as a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with this victory in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, in which he earned a career-best Beyer Figure.
NYQUIST remained unbeaten with this hard-fought victory, holding off arch-rival SWIPE through a lengthy stretch drive.
The well-traveled EXAGGERATOR visited his fifth different racetrack in his fourth different state for his sixth lifetime start, and gutted out a game victory over a determined SUNNY RIDGE to win the second-richest 2-year-old race of the year.
After making his three prior starts on turf, AIROFORCE switched to the dirt for this race. Airoforce – a son of Colonel John - appears, quite simply, to be a good horse, capable on turf as well as, at the least, sloppy dirt.
The mutuel field, the No. 24 or “all others” option, closed Sunday as the favorite in Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager and in the Sire futures offered for the first time this year by Churchill Downs.
There would be no tough beat for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin this year in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes as Mohaymen split horses in midstretch and drew clear to a 1 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s $300,000 stakes for juvenile males at Aqueduct.
The first of four pools in the 2016 Kentucky Derby Future Wager opens Thursday with something of a twist – for the first time, a separate wager involving the sires of Derby runners also will be available.
