For horseplayers who crave large fields, they don’t get much bigger than those offered in the Kentucky Oaks-Woodford Reserve-Kentucky Derby pick three that straddles the Friday and Saturday cards at Churchill Downs. The races could average 15 starters each, with the Oaks capped at 14, the Woodford drawing 12, and the Derby cutoff 20.
It was another perfect morning for training Thursday at Churchill Downs, where all the Derby activity took place after the renovation break. There were really no surprises during Thursday’s session, with all the Derby lookers continuing to look good again.
How do you find a Kentucky Derby longshot worth tossing onto tickets?
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has gotten a good look at Bob Baffert’s one-two punch for the Kentucky Derby. Lukas longshot Mr. Z tangled with both halves of the juggernaut, finishing third, less than a neck behind Dortmund, in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity last December, and third, 8 3/4 lengths behind American Pharoah, in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby three weeks ago.
If Coffee Clique got as much out of her comeback race as trainer Brian Lynch thinks she did, there’s a very good chance she could repeat in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile.
His name has become synonymous with racing controversy. On Saturday, two races before the Kentucky Derby, Bayern once again will be a hot topic when making his 4-year-old debut as a solid favorite in the 81st running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes.
Bettors who took 3-5 on the mutuel field in Pool 1 of the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager last fall will have 13 horses on their side Saturday, but the top three morning-line choices – American Pharoah, Dortmund, and Carpe Diem – were separately listed interests in that opening pool, jeopardizing that play.
Racing fans annually lament the low quality of the horses in the Kentucky Derby, and often their assessment proves to be correct. But few such opinions are being voiced before Saturday’s running of America’s greatest race. This is the strongest, deepest, and fastest Derby field since at least 2007 (the year of Street Sense and Curlin), and it could conceivably be the best since the great years of the 1980s.
Stanford has been scratched from the Kentucky Derby, allowing Frammento to get in, according to trainer Todd Pletcher, who said he just called in the scratch to the stewards.
Forget becoming a Hall of Famer or a legend. All these folks want to do Saturday is emulate the likes of jockeys Ronnie Franklin and Stewart Elliott or trainers Barclay Tagg and Chip Woolley.
