Victories last week by Dubai Sky in the Spiral Stakes and One Lucky Dane in a Santa Anita allowance race vaulted them onto the Derby Watch top 20 along with Mr Z, who is running this Saturday in the Louisiana Derby.
I still like Dortmund to win the Kentucky Derby, but I can make a case for 10 other contenders to be part of the superfecta.
Dubai Sky, the winner of last Saturday’s Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, was one of nine horses nominated to the Triple Crown at the last deadline Monday night, according to Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby.
The Bob Baffert-trained duo of American Pharoah and Dortmund are the top morning-line choices in the fourth and final pool in the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for a three-day run.
Handicapper David Grening ranks the top 3-year-old males and fillies pointing to races at Aqueduct.
This is it – the final week of the long Fair Grounds meet. And the more the top of the 3-year-old male class stabled in New Orleans this winter shows itself, the greater the realization that the group – the ones who ran in stakes, at least – was not a strong one. TIZNOW R J was poor again at Sunland Park this past weekend, and while WIRELESS FUTURE didn’t get a good trip, he also failed to distinguish himself in the Spiral Stakes at Turfway. Of the horses who have been based here most of the meet, I’m not sure Louisiana Derby hopeful WAR STORY is fundamentally better than two sharp maiden winners who got going too late for stakes at Fair Grounds, both of whom make this list.
Champion AMERICAN PHAROAH continues to lead the local 3-year-old division off his 6 1/4-length win in the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel Stakes this month. He invaded from Southern California and could return for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 11.
Trainer Josie Carroll did not confirm Ami’s Flatter as a definite starter in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby, but she certainly was leaning in that direction after the Tampa Bay Derby runner-up breezed a half-mile in 49 seconds at Palm Meadows on Monday.
This was the last of the group of Kentucky Derby preps worth 85 points overall (50 to the winner), and it showcased the depth and strength of the Southern California-based 3-year-olds, for FIRING LINE made a mockery of this race after escaping the literal and figurative shadow of the hulking Dortmund.
As the New York winter struggles to evolve into spring, this circuit’s heartiest 3-year-old soul, El Kabeir, continues to thrive, working five furlongs in 59.97 seconds Sunday morning over the Belmont Park training track.
